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.