The Ballantrae complex has yielded its oldest yet determined age of 576 ± 32 Ma from an Sm–Nd internal isochron for a block ‘eclogite’ interpreted as being a component of the mélange-olistostrome unit at Knockormal. This unit is possibly older than the main ophiolitic part of the complex and the ‘eclogite’ block provides evidence for the existence of oceanic crust older than c. 575 Ma on the southern margin of the Laurentian shield.
An Sm–Nd internal isochron from a high-grade metapyroxenite in the metamorphic aureole beneath an obducted slab of mantle peridotite at Laigh Knocklaugh yields an age of 505 ± 11 Ma. This is interpreted as close to the age of metamorphism and is older than the K–Ar age of 478 ± 8 Ma determined for the amphibolites of the aureole which underlie the metapyroxenite. The metapyroxenite had a provenance deeper in the oceanic crust than the amphibolite and the former has been structurally detached and justaposed against the latter in this telescoped metamorphic sequence.
