Islay and Colonsay occupy a crucial position in the Caledonian frontal zone S of the Great Glen fault in western Scotland. However, some of the stratigraphical units which comprise these islands are of doubtful age as they have tectonic boundaries and contain no fossils or distinctive lithological components. New information is presented here on the deformational histories and styles of the rocks and this has prompted a reassessment of their stratigraphical position and a major reinterpretation of t0he tectonism of this frontal zone.

In contrast to the conventional view, all the stratigraphical units have been deformed together during a regional shearing event. The Colonsay Group contains intrafolial and sheath folds and has a pronounced linear fabric which is parallel to grain elongations in parts of the Bowmore and Dalradian sequences. Most junctions between the Colonsay Group and basement of the Lewisian complex are highly sheared. The junction between the Bowmore Group and Dalradian Supergroup is also tectonised and is normally referred to as the Loch Skerrols thrust but here as a shear zone. This structure is shown not to be a profound discontinuity, alone representing the Caledonian front S of the Great Glen fault, but one element in a major flat-lying NW-directed ductile shear zone. The Caledonian front therefore lies to the W of the islands.

The Bowmore Group is suggested to be a lateral equivalent of the Crinan Grits in the Dalradian Supergroup, lying in the overturned sheared limb of the Islay anticline. The age of the Colonsay Group remains enigmatic; the identification of previously unrecognised early structures which may precede shearing in the Grampian episodes of the Caledonian orogenic cycle allows the possibility of a pre-Caledonian deformation of the Group.