The Northern Highlands: Landscapes in Stone

Description

Longlisted for the Highland Book Prize 2019 The rocks of northern Scotland tell of turbulent events involving continental collisions that unleashed cataclysmic forces, creating a chain of mountains, the remnants of which we see today on both sides of the Atlantic.  Geologists from Victorian times onwards have studied the area, and some of the most important geological phenomena have been established and described from the rocks that built these stunning landscapes. In this book, Alan McKirdy makes sense of the many and varied episodes that shaped the familiar landscape we see today. He highlights a number of fascinating geological features, including the Old Red Sandstones of Cromarty and the Black Isle, which carry the secrets of life during ‘the Age of Fishes’, and the thin sliver of fossil-bearing strata which hugs the coast from Golspie to beyond Helmsdale that dates back to Jurassic times and which records the time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth. Cover Contents Introduction The Northern Highlands through time Geological map 1. Time and motion 2. Early beginnings 3. Continents collide 4. The age of fishes 5. A Jurassic interlude 6. The Ice Age and beyond 7. Landscapes today 8. Places to visit 1. The North Coast 500 2. The road to Applecross 3. Knockan Crag and the Rock Route 4. Peach and Horne memorial 5. The north shore of Loch GLencoul 6. North West Highlands Geopark 7. Walk from Cape Wrath to Sandwood Bay 8. Dunnet Head 9. The Helmsdale coast and southwards to Brora and Golspie 10. Hugh Miller’s cottage Acknowledgements and picture credits