Scotland - a land of castles, scenery, geology and stories

I’m now convinced that every geologist should visit Scotland. From Edinburgh, haunted by the ghosts of Hutton, Playfair and Lyell (not to mention the host of other scientists, economists, etc. of the Scottish Enlightenment) to the Highlands with the successive orogenies the comprise the Caledonian and Barrow’s classic sequence of metamorphic grades, Scotland truly does seem the foundation of classical geology. But it’s also a fabulously beautiful part of the world and one that’s rich in history blending into myth and just plain stories... so here’s a brief travelogue of our geo-exploration of NW Scotland.
We are: Jon Blundy and Mike Walter (U. Bristol), Ben Harte (retired metamorphic geologist from U. Edinburgh) and me. Purpose: to scope out independent mapping areas for U. Bristol third year students (and for Mike and myself - the two Americans - to get acquainted with classical UK geology).

Day 1: Bristol-Glasgow-Oban

Jon, Mike and I left Bristol at ~7am on Tuesday morning in a torrential downpour. An hour later we touched down in Glasgow in brilliant sunshine. A small island indeed but it set the stage for our week a world away from SW England. Picked up a vehicle and headed north, past the bonnie banks and braes of Loch Lomond (with a quick stop for photos of Ben Lomond and coffee at the tourist bus/boat area), which are really only a short drive north of Glasgow.

And on to Tyndrum for a late morning sampling of SGB (“so bloody good”) fish & chips - Jon’s designation, based on a recollection from a former trip along this route. And they were... and we were ready for them, having gotten up ridiculously early to catch the flight north. As we then headed northwest toward Oban, the scenery continued to improve... Ben Oss and Ben Lui snow-capped above the valley of the River Awe, and on to Loch Awe, where we couldn’t resist stopping to take a look at the ruins of Kilchurn Castle. I will confess that I was clamoring for a stop, as I was in the middle of reading a book called Castle about the history of castles in the UK (but the guys didn’t show any reluctance to follow up on my suggestion...) and a castle on a Loch called Awe was just too good to pass up. And Awe seems an appropriate word - the castle had lovely views up the Loch to the peaks we had just passed, and down the loch studded with islands, missing only the Swallows and Amazons in their sailing dinghies (I kept thinking throughout the trip what lovely sailing was available on all the little lochs that we passed!).

We then followed the River Awe NW to the coast and the picturesque town of Oban - known primarily (at least by me) for its whiskey. But it’s a lovely little seaside town overlooking the small island of Kerrera (our target for the afternoon) and the larger island of Mull (our target for the following day). So we dumped our things at the Glenbervie guest house (pictured in the upper right of the photo collage below... upper left is the view of Oban from my window the next morning) and walked to the docks to find the ferry to Kerrera.

Ferry ride was short - boat was small, passengers only because Kerrera has no roads although it does have a busy marina and boatyard. Spent the afternoon poking around, checking out both the geology and the exposures to sort out the best combinations of geology plus exposure for student mapping areas. Caught the last ferry back at 7 and were treated to a wonderful view of sailboats emerging from Oban for an evening sail - made me want to join them! The evenings are long in Scotland even though we’re not yet at midsummer - for the dates that we were there, sunrise in Oban was a little after 5 and sunset a bit after 9, but there was light in the western sky until after 10 (the beauty of high latitudes!). And the days were even longer farther to the north...

Day 2: Mull  

The next day we headed to the island of Mull by ferry. Mull is the second largest island of the inner Hebrides (the largest is the island of Skye, of Bonnie Prince Charlie fame) and has numerous Bronze Age archaeological sites (i.e. it’s been inhabited for a long time). In the 14th century Mull became part of the Lordship of the Isles; it was later taken over by the Macleans and then the dreaded Campbells (more about them later). This isn’t just random history - instead it’s part of the history bedtime story that we were told each night by Ben, who carefully doled out interesting historical tidbits related to the land (and sometimes the rocks) that we had explored during the day. So - the Kingdom of the Isles was originally part of the Gaelic kingdom of Dal Riata, or Dalriada. And our sage geology guide Ben spent much of his career studying Neoproterozoic (~800 to 510 million years) Dalradian Supergroup. A somewhat later history relates to the island of Iona, which lies just west of Mull (we didn’t quite have time to go there to explore - had thought of putting some students on the island but decided that the geology was a bit too difficult for 3rd year undergraduates). Apparently Columba (later St. Columba) traveled from Ireland north to Iona in 563 AD to found a monastery - not only is this center credited with spreading Christianity to the Picts and Scots, but it is also thought to be the origin of the famous Book of Kells (an illuminated manuscript). But we weren’t there to be tourists (more is the pity - north of Iona is the uninhabited island of Staffa, which is famous for Fingal’s Cave, a cave in spectacular columns joints that are similar, in form and origin, to Giants’ Causeway in northern Ireland... I whined a bit about not being allowed to visit famous volcanic rock sites, but was reminded that that was not the point of the trip). But I really couldn’t complain - weather was spectacular, as was the scenery AND the rocks of the Dalradian (as you can see by Jon and Mike’s intense interest in them).

Again we caught an early evening ferry back to Oban, which gave us time to change clothes and head back to the wonderful seafood restaurant on the pier that we had found the evening before.

Day 3: Cuil Bay-Ballachulish-Glen Coe-Onich

The next morning again dawned sunny (we were starting to feel a bit guilty, as we were receiving emails from Bristol, where it was dumping with rain, condoling us for being consigned to field work in Scotland!). We headed north to check out mapping sites at Cuil Bay and then on to Ballachulish and Glen Coe. The latter two are famous in geologic circles as, respectively, a pluton and a caldera, both formed in the Devonian (more than 400 million years ago) during the Caledonide orogeny (when the continental pieces that now comprise the UK were assembled). We had a spectacular view of the Ballachulish pluton... our guide Ben was amazed at the visibility (which he continued to be, our entire time in the Glen Coe region).

We drove past Ballachulish and on to Glen Coe, a stunning exposure of a sequence of caldera-forming eruptions from the Glencoe volcano... but equally stunning simply as a landscape feature (the glen of the River Coe). We spent the rest of the afternoon scrambling up the valley (lower right photo) to check out the contact between the upper lava flows and the lower Dalradian... the scenery reminded me of Colorado, with the intensely blue skies and new spring green against the dramatic rock faces. And then up the road to the Queen’s Cairn (constructed for Queen Victoria’s traverse through the area) and my only good look at the famous caldera-forming rocks of the area. 

At the end of the day we headed back down through Ballachulish to our B&B near Onich - a wonderful old Bishop’s house called Creag Mhor... we barely had time to change and grab a quick beer before realizing that we need to race walk a kilometer to get dinner at the Hotel Onich before they stopped serving at 9. Enjoyed a more leisurely walk back to the Creag Mhor and then a relaxed evening in the wonderful living room/bar, which had won several Whiskey Gold awards, which meant (so we were told) that they had AT LEAST two hundred different whiskeys on offer! Well clearly we couldn’t make a dent in that number, but we did decide that we should try a few. And so we had a proper setting for the next in what became Ben’s nightly installments of Scottish history. This evening the stories encompassed both the battle of Glen Coe and the story of James of the Glen. First Glen Coe. The story starts in 1688, when William, Prince of Orange, took over the English throne. The Scots backed James VII of Scotland (= James II of England... yes, it’s confusing) instead, which led to the short-lived Jacobite uprising (we’ll hear of other such uprisings later). When returning from the battle, a member of the clan Macdonald looted Campbell lands... In 1691, William offered a pardon to any Jacobite who would swear allegiance to him by Jan 1, 1692. After waiting for permission from the exiled James (never granted), Alastair Maclain (of the Macdonald clan), 12th Chief of Glencoe, belatedly set out for Fort Williams (north of Glen Coe) to swear allegiance. However, he was then told that he had to proceed to Inveraray to have the oath administered... so he was late in getting there, although he had met the set goal in spirit. BUT again the Campbells make an appearance... this time trying to break the Highland clans, and using Maclain's failure to take the oath as an excuse. Capt Robert Campbell brought troops to Glen Coe, where they were taken in by the locals. After two weeks, the soldiers were ordered to massacre all of the inhabitants. However, the story goes that by then many of the soldiers were sympathetic to the locals and alerted them to the plan. So although several died, others were able to escape through a narrow defile into the neighboring valley. The massacre became an important rallying point in the mid-eighteenth century Jacobite uprising (more later).

OK - I realize that this is a lot of stories at once (maybe if you’re still reading this you should pour yourself a nice single malt island whiskey, which is how we heard most of the stories) but it was part of the whole ambience of the trip (you can just skip to the next photos!). On to James of the Glen (James Stewart), famous for being (apparently wrongly) accused of killing Colin Roy Campbell (yes, another Campbell - you get the picture) and hanged at the bridge across Loch Leven from Glencoe to Onish (and visible from our B&B). Colin Campbell was a British government agent who was sent to evict farming tenants from nearby Duror (and replace them with his relatives). He was shot in the back (i.e. murdered) and James Stewart (a veteran of the Battle of Culloden - more later) was the highest ranking authority around, and therefore was condemned. This is more than a local story, as it shows up in RL Stevenson’s book Kidnapped. Of interest to me is the speculation of the actual assassin, whose name was Alan Breck Stewart (my grandfather’s name was Robert Breck Moran). Apparently in Kidnapped, Stevenson has his hero David Balfour meet up with Alan Breck Stewart, and has them witness the murder. Must re-read Kidnapped!

Day 4: Kinlochleven-Ben Nevis-Great Glen-Inverness

Back to geology [my companions kept giving me a hard time about lack of focus on geology because I kept being distracted by castles, stories, volcanology, and the ever-present and very familiar (from Scottish dancing an my infatuation with celtic music) Scottish music that was always playing in the tartan-carpeted breakfast rooms of our B&Bs]... the next day we spent in the same area, hiking the hillsides above Loch Leven, where the students will spend several days getting up-to-speed on mapping skills. It was a good reminder for me of structural geology... and has some spectacular rocks (including lovely refolded folds, for the geologists!)

At the end of the day we headed north to Fort William (where Alistair Maclean attempted to take the oath of allegiance), past Ben Nevis (the highest peak in the UK - photos below) and northeast up the Great Glen fault, marked by Loch Lochy (for real!) and the very famous Loch Ness, to Inverness, where we managed again to sneak into dinner under the 9pm deadline. Then had the next installment of Scottish history, the beginning of the story of Montrose (James Graham, the Earl of Montrose). Initially a Covenanter opposed to the imposition of Anglican prayer by King Charles 1 (in 1638), he really was just in favor of the separation of church and state and therefore ended up taking the King's side against - you’ve guessed it - another Campbell, a Presbyterian. Montrose ended up imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle... after being sprung free by Charles I, he rallied the Catholic highlanders and won crushing victories including, among others, against the Presbyterian Campbells at Inverlochy (just north of Fort William and near Loch Lochy)...

Day 5: Inverness-Ullapool-Inchnadamph

The next day took us back across Scotland to the northwest, to Ullapool, Knockan Crag and Inchnadamph. Spent the morning checking out mapping areas around Ullapool - started in the driving cold rain but weather was mostly cold and overcast. Then went on the Knockan Crag (Creag a’ Chnocain... all signs are bilingual in this part of the world), which is a “Natural Nature Reserve”, preserved for its geology, as it is a classic example of the Moine thrust, where older Moine schist is thrust over younger limestone (see photo below!).

But its also just spectacular countryside... and continued to be as we made our way north to Inchnadamph, another classic UK geology locality and famous mapping area for students (for good reason!). But it’s mostly just drop dead beautiful. 

And here we settled in at the Inchnadamph in with the touring Scottish fishermen for our last installment of Ben’s story of Montrose. So we left Montrose at the height of his powers, proclaimed lord lieutenant and captain general of Scotland by the King. Montrose called for an assembly of the Scottish parliament, but not before King Charles was defeated. He escaped to Norway, tried to come back in 1649 to revenge the death of the king, but was defeated and finally surrendered at Ardvreck castle, on Loch Assynt (upper right photo, above). Needless to say, he did not meet a good end.  

Day 6: Inchnadamph-Inverness-Culloden-Bristol
Our last morning was greeted with a dusting of snow, and sun, and more snow... And demonstrated for us the old adage that in Scotland you can experience all seasons in a single day... 

A brief addendum - Jon, Mike and I had a couple of hours between dropping Ben off at the train station and having to show up at the airport, so we stopped by Culloden, site of the final battle of Bonnie Prince Charlie (who was a bit of a young hot head and a fool, I must say) and location of his flight across the highlands and over the sea to Skye...