Natural history & geology
About the Book
The remote archipelago which lies off the north-west coast of Scotland boasts a huge range of contrasting and spectacular land- and
seascapes. Lewis is austere, with a featureless peatland core, bounded by dramatic sea cliffs, whilst neighbouring Harris is extraordinarily
rugged but fringed with stunning unspoilt beaches. The Uists are characterised by gentle fertile machair lands, and Barra has a more brutal
landscape carved from ancient gnarled rock. But these islands have one thing in common: they were all built from the most ancient rocks in
Britain – Lewisian gneiss, which reaches back almost to the beginning of geological time.
In this book Alan McKirdy explores these islands, together with the volcanic rocks that build the outposts of Rockall, St Kilda and the Shiants,
tracing their extraordinary journey through time and across the globe.
The Author
Alan McKirdy
Alan McKirdy has written many popular books and book chapters on geology and related topics and has helped to promote the study of environmental geology in schools. Before his recent retirement he was Head of Information Management at Scottish Natural Heritage. He is the author of Land of Mountain and Flood, Set in Stone and the Landscapes in Stone series.You may also like…
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Paperback | Pub: 22 Jun 2017£6.99Argyll and the islands that lie off from the west coast of the Kintyre are some of the most historically resonant places in Scotland. But the rocks beneath tell a story of an even more ancient world that stretches back billions of years....
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Paperback | Pub: 10 May 2018£6.99The Lochaber and Glencoe area is rich in historical associations. It was at Glenfinnan that Bonnie Prince Charlie started his long march southwards to lay claim to the British throne, and Glencoe was the scene of one of the most vicious massacres in...
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Paperback | Pub: 22 Jun 2017£6.99
Lying off the south-western tip of Mull, the island of Iona has huge significance as the first important centre of Christianity in Scotland. But the Abbey itself is built upon rocks that tell of events of much greater antiquity: the Lewisian...
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Paperback | Pub: 11 Jul 2019£6.99
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...
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Paperback | Pub: 06 Apr 2017£6.99An ancient and long-extinct volcano lies at the heart of Scotland’s capital. It roared into life some 350 million years ago and has been a source of fascination since it was first studied in earnest during the Enlightenment by James Hutton,...
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Hardback | Pub: 26 Oct 2017£30.00Scotland is justly famed for its magnificent scenery – mountains, lochs, islands, wild rocky places and sandy beaches. All this is evidence of an exciting geological history which began 3,500 billion years ago and is still continuing. The...
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Paperback | Pub: 11 Jul 2019£6.99The archipelagos of Orkney and Shetland are the products of some of the most dramatic events which have occurred in the Earth’s history. The Shetlands are the eroded roots of a vast mountain range that once soared to Himalayan heights and extended...
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Paperback | Pub: 01 Aug 2016£7.99The Isle of Skye offers a magical combination of wild land and breath-taking natural beauty. Skye’s geological history involves some of the most ancient rocks on the planet; a grandstand view as the Highlands of Scotland were formed over 400...
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Paperback | Pub: 01 Aug 2016£7.99The Isle of Arran dominates the Firth of Clyde. A favourite haunt of holidaymakers, it is also a place of fascination for the geologist, offering a huge variety of rocks that represent a massive slice through geological time. From the ancient bent...
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Paperback | Pub: 16 Jul 2015£9.99
The land that was to become Scotland has travelled across the globe over the last 3,000 million years – from close to the South Pole to its current position. During these travels, there were many continental collisions, creating mountain belts...
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Paperback | Pub: 06 Apr 2017£6.99The geology of the Cairngorms was created on a timeline that stretches back hundreds of millions of years. Much of the land is underlain by granite that formed deep within the Earth’s crust and ‘surfaced’ as the overlying layers of...
