Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T00:17:04.870Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Glencoul Nappe and the Assynt Culmination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

Extract

It is unnecessary to emphasize the clarity with which overthrust structures are exhibited in the North-West Highlands of Scotland. Publications by B. N. Peach, J. Home, and their colleagues on the Geological Survey, following upon others of slightly earlier date by C. Callaway and C. Lapworth, have opened up this wonderland of geology to visitors from all parts of the world. Exposures of an overthrust mountain front extend for 120 miles from Durness to Skye. They exhibit many variations of style, of which no single locality is fully representative. At the same time, for a short excursion there is one specially favoured district. It lies in and about the Assynt culmination, where erosion has cut back the Moine nappe for several miles behind the normal line of outcrop, and has thus fashioned an extensive semi-window, through which an intriguing view can be obtained of underlying complexities (Fig. 1). The most useful publications on this district are the Geological Survey maps on the scales of a ¼ inch, 1 inch, and 6 inches to the mile, coupled with the great North-West Highland memoir and the beloved penny Guide to the Assynt Model. The most convenient hotel is Inchnadamph at the head of Loch Assynt.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1935

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bailey, E. B., and M’Callien, W. J., 1934. “Pre-Cambrian Association. B. Second Excursion, Scotland, 1934,” Geol. Mag., LXXI, 549.Google Scholar
Bertrand, M., 1888. “Un nouveau Problème de la Géologie provençale. Pénétration de Marnes irisées dans le Crétacé.” Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci., cvii, 2e, sem., 878.Google Scholar
Bertrand, M., 1891. “Sur le massif d’allauch.” Bull. Soc. Géol. France, 38 sér., xix, compte-rendu sommaire, cii.Google Scholar
Bertrand, M., 1891. “Le massif d’Allauch.” Bull. Serv. Carte Géol. France, iii, 283.Google Scholar
Callaway, C., 1883. “The Age of the Newer Gneissic Rocks of the Northern Highlands.” Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., xxxix, 355.Google Scholar
Clough, C., See Peach and Horne with others.Google Scholar
Horne, J., See Peach and Horne.Google Scholar
Lapworth, C., 1883. “The Secret of the Highlands.” Geol. Mag., 120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Peach, B. N., and Horne, J., 1884. “Report on the Geology of the North-West of Sutherland,” Nature, xxxi, 31.Google Scholar
Peach, B. N., and Horne, J., 1888. “Report on the Recent Work of the Geological Survey in the North-West Highlands of Scotland,” Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., xliv, 378.Google Scholar
Peach, B. N., and Horne, J., 1907. “The Geology of the North-West Highlands of Scotland,” Mem. Geol. Survey.Google Scholar
Peach, B. N., and Horne, J., 1914. “Guide to the Geological Model of the Assynt Mountains,” Mem. Geol. Survey.Google Scholar
Peach, B. N., and Horne, J., 1930. Chapters on the Geology of Scotland. London.Google Scholar
Peach, B. N., and Horne, J., 1891. Inchnadamph, Sutherland 71; 6 inch to 1 mile; 1: 10,560.Google Scholar
Peach, B. N., and Horne, J., 1892. Ullapool, Scotland 101; 1 inch to 1 mile, 1: 63,360.Google Scholar
Peach, B. N., and Horne, J., 1892. Inchnadamph, Scotland 107, 1 inch to 1 mile, 1: 63,360.Google Scholar
Peach, B. N., and Horne, J., 1923. Assynt, special; 1 inch to 1 mile, 1: 63,360.Google Scholar
Peach, B. N., and Horne, J., 1925. Lairg, Scotland 102; 1 inch to 1 mile, 1: 63,360.Google Scholar
Peach, B. N., and Horne, J., 1931. Altnaharra, Scotland 108; 1 inch to 1 mile, 1: 63,360.Google Scholar
Peach, B. N., and Horne, J., 1934. Sutherland, Scotland 5; ¼ in. to 1 mile, 1: 253,440.Google Scholar
Phemister, J., 1926. In “The Geology of Strath Oykell and Lower Loch Shin” (Explanation of Sheet 102), Mem. Geol. Survey.Google Scholar