U3A Geology group sets out for Glen Brittle but finishes up at Talisker Bay

On 4th April 2012 four of us met at Carbost with the intention of travelling to Glen Brittle to check out signs of glaciation. I don't really remember why that didn't happen and why we suddenly found ourselves on the road to Talisker Bay. Perhaps it was another case of alien possession. We had been to Talisker Bay before in a failed attempt to find the ropey lava, so maybe there was also some sort of subconscious unresolved karmic resonance going on. Anhow, we failed once again as no one had thought to ask what the tide might be doing. It was in and the road to the holy grail was blocked.

Dithering

Ignominious retreat

Water eroding basalt cliff through eons of time.

 No one knew what this was.

Perhaps at low tide it would be possible to get a closer look at the red mineral. Do the horizontal cracks in the upper part of the cliff delineate separate lava flows, each approximately 5 meters deep?

Preshal Mor, which could be a volcanic plug or a lava lake; probably the latter as I don't think there were any volcanos in this area. There appear to be 2 sections, the lower one comprising basalt columns, formed as extruded lava cooled relatively rapidly, giving rise to cooling joints perpendicualr to the surface of the flow, and the upper one seemingly diffuse. 

There are some marvellous images of hexagonal rock columns on the twin hill Preshal Beg at the link below. Maybe if we ever go to Talisker Bay again we could focus on exploring the slopes of Preshal Mor?

http://www.walkhighlands.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=12655

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.

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?

The Quiraing Expedition

The 5 trepid explorers met at the house of Uig Jo for a caffeine-containing potion and a tasty home-made date slice. As we sped through the valley of the River Rha in the luxury Mercedes we passed an old man in shorts and a deerstalker hat. Many miles later he strode casually by us on the Quiraing and we managed to hold back from pushing him over the edge.

Looking south, left to right: Loch Leum na Luirginn, Loch Cleat, Cleat, Dun Dubh.

Cnoc a Mheirlich, from the north east.

Looking north east, Cnoc a Mheirlich in the foreground, the Prison sloping up in the background.

The cliffs of Maoladh Mor on the left.

With admirable nonchalance, the group leader goes to the aid of a U3Aer encountering difficulties on a steep rock face.

Twixt Needle and Prison.

The Needle

A rock goblin running along the cliff top (according to our group leader).

Two rock creatures guard an entrance to the underworld.

Looking down at Staffin beach.



It was time for elevenses and a lecture by our resident geology graduate Dunvegan Judy on the geology of Trotternish. This was slightly in need of updating as her degree is apparently Precambrian and major geological events have occurred in the meantime. This was followed by a geology quiz featuring questions on the structure of the Earth. Uig Jo won the first prize, a not too badly dented tin of Co-op baked beans, and runner up Judy was presented with a rather hard organic pear. A query was floated as to the origin of the strange sloping structures shown below.

Cleat and Dun Dubh in the foreground, Beinn Edra in the background. Group leader Uig Jo, demonstrated the mechanism whereby these rock formations arose by pushing my sandwich box so that the bird, flower, and butterfly books perched precarioulsy thereon, collapsed into a slope. Once again, the devastating, incisive intellect of our group leader had cut through a complex, seemingly insoluble problem like a hedge trimmer through rice pudding (with a blob of strawberry jam, stirred so that everything goes pink). In the mere flick of a finger on a sandwich box she said "the underlying sedimentary rocks have collapsed under the weight of the basalt, tipping everything sideways to form the distinctive landslips".


On the way back we clambered through heather and bog up the 300-metre high Reieval, sustaining significant midge injuries in the process, to gain a beautiful view of Uig Bay and the north west Trotternish plain, and across Loch Snizort to Waternish and the Outer Hebrides. Finally we were given lemonade back in Uig and sent on our way with mounds of giant cabbage leaves and spinach.

A spiffing day out which not only added to our cabbage coffers but also expanded still further our ever-expanding knowledge of the geological world.