Wednesday, 28 March 2012

The Mystery of Glen Uig and Fairy Glen

Jo reckons Glen Uig/Gleann Conain is a wide glacially sculptured valley with its origin higher up in the Trotternish Hills and that is a very plausible theory, but the landscape of Fairy Glen is something else. It bears a strong resemblance to how one might imagine Hobbiton in The Lord of the Rings and there are clear signs that some people do regard this spot as having some form of "preternatural ambience", though geologists would probably use terms such as igneous intrusions and volcanic shrapnel to bury any fanciful thoughts of dwelling places of fairies and pixies who only come out at night.

Glen Uig, at one time bearing a massive glacier westward into Uig Bay.


Looking south across Glen Uig to Fairy Glen, said to be formed from landslides followed by glaciation.


River Conon


Entering Fairy Glen.


Fairy car park


Looking north from Fairy Glen over Glen Uig.


Can you spot Laa-Laa and Tinky Winky?


Notice the Norah Batty-like wrinkly surfaces which Jo attributes to weathering rather than gravity.


Palace of the Fairy King or basalt intrusion.


Trotternish hills look down into the valley.


Icy stream.


A soft iron-rich rock.



Castle Ewen. Note the dark larval layer containing a ribbon of red rock.



Castle Ewen.

Tuesday, 20 March 2012

Gneiss time at Point of Sleat

It was a cool and cloudy day for the group's first visit to the Point of Sleat on the southernmost tip of Sleat Peninsula in south east Skye. Most of Skye has a volcanic topography, but Sleat is an exception. I can't begin to explain the complex geology of this area properly but suffice it to say that rocks were layered, with the oldest, Lewisian gneiss, at the bottom, followed by Torridonian sandstone and shale, then Cambrian quartzite and Durness limestone. The 3 major thrust faults Moine, Tarskavaig, and Kishorn messed things about a bit, introducing the metamorphic rock Moine schist and moving gneiss from the basement to the top floor. Some igneous intrusions are thrown in for good measure. Anyhow, it's all beyond me.

Looking south east across the Sound of Sleat to the Scottish mainland.


What was this again?


Shale layered between igneous rock?



A sandstone layer?


Isle of Eigg


More stuff






Is this a layer if Cambrian quartzite or what?


Something was pushing too hard and it got bent.









Falling


Coastal cows






Volcanic plug or lava lake?