by Vivien As old as the hills Martin ECENTLY we had a display of fossils Rin the library. A young woman with two small children examined a fossilised James Hutton, the Scottish dinosaur tooth with great interest. She then turned to me and asked if cavemen would have kept dinosaurs as pets. And to my surprise the question was serious. Enlightenment and the It brought home to me just how difficult the concept of time can be. Especially the further back you go. All those billions of years that have gone into creating North West Highlands Geopark the planet we know today, including the millions it’s taken for our particular bit of it, Scotland, to reach its present form. Such a vast span of time can be hard, if not impossible, for our minds to grasp. This ‘deep time’, as it’s called, is measured in eons, eras, periods and epochs. Geologists believe that many of these eras were brought to an end by specific cataclysmic events. Like, for example, the one 64 million years ago, when a gigantic meteor strike is thought to have set off a chain reaction so destructive that it led to mass extinctions on Earth, the dinosaurs included. Extinctions that occurred long, long before the arrival of humans. So no, if you were a caveman you most certainly wouldn’t have had a dinosaur as a pet! Fred Flintstone has a lot to answer for!

“Go to the mountains to read the immeasurable course of time.” James Hutton, 1788

Fred Flintstone has a lot to Fred & Dino Credit Hanna-Barbera Gruinard Bay answer for! Prof Lorna The North West Highlands Dawson of the Geopark welcomes you! James Hutton Institute

So how do we know how old the earth is? After all, humankind is one of the more recent additions to the planet and people weren’t around to witness what happened. To a great extent it’s thanks to the work of a Scot, James Hutton The Rock Stop, Unapool (image credit NWHGeopark) (1726-1797), one of the many remarkable figures of the Scottish Enlightenment. Hutton wrote in 1795, “we find no vestige of a beginning–no prospect of an end.” Revolutionary stuff for those times! No Hutton had studied chemistry, and wonder he was deemed the ‘Blasphemous Geologist.’ Angus Sinclair for the shocking World’s End pub murders He was part of that movement known while running the family farm in in Edinburgh, committed 37 years previously. Sinclair was as the Scottish Enlightenment, a Berwickshire, his examination of soil led Nonetheless, Hutton’s innovative work helped make geology initially acquitted of the murders, but Professor Dawson’s golden age in the 18th and early 19th to the radical proposal that the interior a science in its own right and earned him the accolade painstaking re-analysis of soil samples finally led to his centuries when knowledge in all of the Earth was hot, thereby fuelling of ‘Father of Geology’. Nor is his work forgotten today. He conviction and at last justice was done. I suspect Hutton branches of the arts and the sciences the creation of new rock which, through believed that understanding what’s in the soil is important, would have been delighted to see his scientific endeavours of It was a time of took a huge leap forward. It was a time erosion and sedimentation, provided and the staff at the eponymous James Hutton Institute in yesteryear playing their part in achieving justice today! great intellectual of great intellectual and scientific the Earth with a continuous supply of Aberdeen believe that too. Their research into environmental, and scientific achievements, when new ideas were new soil. Soil which held clues to its crop and food science plays a crucial role in shaping Scottish Hutton’s ideas didn’t come totally out of the blue, however. achievements embraced, education flourished and own history and was rich in elements Government policy. But there’s more to it than that. Professor specific to the place and rock of origin. Lorna Dawson, ‘soil sleuth’ and forensic scientist at the Knockan Crag He observed that “a vast proportion institute, has followed in Hutton’s footsteps – though in a of the present rocks are composed of direction that might have surprised him. As Professor of materials afforded by the destruction of No wonder he Forensic Geology, she’s developed the science of soil analysis bodies, animal, vegetable and mineral, was deemed the to such an extent that previously unsolvable crimes have of more ancient formation.” The land ‘Blasphemous been solved. In 2014 her work resulted in the conviction of is never static, but a living system, he Geologist’ concluded, and these processes could only have happened over millions of years, not the 6,000 years or so as decreed by the church. “In geology,”

James Hutton The building blocks of Scotland of The building blocks Geologists Ben Peach and John Horne still debating!

Inside one of the bone caves human reason, that is rational thinking, knowledge should be based on observation and evidence But what exactly are geoparks? I’d assumed they were came to the fore. Everything was – became the order of the day. What couldn’t be justified by solely about the landscape. But I was wrong. There’s a challenged. reason was questioned, and often subsequently rejected. lot more to them than that. Jean Mackay, who works for the geopark, explains, “One of the main reasons for the This heady atmosphere of experiment The Scottish Enlightenment saw the intellectual and cultural geopark is to promote sustainable development and in and discussion struck a chord with the landscape in Scotland take a radical leap forward, adding particular geotourism in our remote and fragile area. We’re enquiring minds of very many Scots. greatly to the wonderfully inventive and creative brew that very concerned with conserving our heritage, be it geology, With a widely literate population, new makes Scots the people they are today. It was also a time landscape or culture, for future generations.” books discussing emerging ideas were What couldn’t when Scotland’s universities, already with strong links to read with great interest, leading to be justified by Europe, were held in even greater esteem, with Scotland and Until I visited, I hadn’t realised that geoparks were set up and a new understanding of how things reason was France being the two great centres of the Enlightenment. run by local communities. That’s a mammoth achievement. worked, and how they came about. The questioned, and It’s a period in Scotland’s intellectual and cultural history we In the park’s Rock Stop visitor centre at Unapool (not to status quo was no longer accepted often subsequently should be proud of. I firmly believe that knowing your own be confused with Ullapool) we not only enjoyed good food blindly. Empiricism – the notion that rejected history is vital in understanding why your country – and you and good coffee, but also found that the exhibition gave us with it - develop the way they do. History really does matter. a much clearer understanding of how this landscape was formed and what makes it so special. The more you learn, the The Hermit’s Castle, But from the fascinating intellectual landscape of 18th more you can read the landscape around you. Achmelvich century Scotland, let’s get back to our geological landscape, complete with its array of weird and wonderful names. Life on the edge is challenging, but geotourism is proving Names ranging from the Cenozoic to the Paleoproterozoic, a successful way to bring in visitors and boost the local the Cambrian to the Pleistocene. Though thanks to film economy, bringing benefits to all. Jean again, “We hope director Steven Spielberg most of us know at least one of that visitors will get a deep connection with our landscape, an appreciation of our culture and heritage and an these unparalleled landscapes, to care them! But can you tell your Jurassic from your Triassic, or for them, to make them accessible to your Cretaceous from your Carboniferous, or even your understanding of the problems that we face as communities based in the Geopark.” visitors, while at the same time ensuring Silurian (think Dr Who) from your Siderian? I have to admit, I the sustainability of communities can’t. But I do know an excellent place where all is revealed, This whole area is one that will take your breath away. within their boundaries. and that’s the North West Highlands Geopark. Initially it can seem like an empty wilderness, but it’s a wilderness that supports people, and has supported very What makes the NWH Geopark so Home to both Knockan Crag and the intriguingly named special? What does it offer to visitors, Bone Caves of Inchnadamph, the NWH Geopark is part many more in the past. Many of the global geoparks are in remote areas where today jobs are few and far between and Some of the oldest these geotourists? A very great deal! of UNESCO’s Global Geopark Network. Such is the depopulation is a major problem. That doesn’t mean people rocks in the world Some of the oldest rocks in the world importance of these geoparks that they enjoy the same don’t want to live and work there. Just the opposite. But how are here. Some of are here. Some of the most bizarre and recognition as World Heritage Sites. Established in 2004, to make life there sustainable? the most bizarre breath-taking scenery in the country. the NWH Geopark was the first of its kind in Scotland and and breath-taking Some of the most stunning sandy covers an area of over 2,000 sq. km. It stretches from just This is where geotourism comes in. Even though the scenery in the beaches. Unique wildlife and plants. north of Ullapool all the way up to Cape Wrath and across geoparks are all different, each shaped by its own unique country. Some of And some of the most ancient and to Loch Eriboll, taking in some of the most unusual and geological history, they all share a common vision. For at the the most stunning remote settlements, sitting alongside stunning landscapes of Scotland. heart of the geopark concept is the desire to tell the story of sandy beaches present-day communities. Looking over Scourie and Scourie Bay (image credit NWHGeopark) Waves crash ashore at Clachtoll

Life and landscape go hand in hand. literally, geology. Until 500 million years ago ‘Scotland’ hesitation she replied, “Balnakiel beach, the view from the known that the German U-boat fleet We know only too well that humans was attached to ‘America drifting with infinite slowness picnic bench overlooking Scourie, the view as you come over surrendered at Loch Eriboll in 1945. Nor make an impact on their landscape, around the Earth. Over millions of years ‘Scotland’ the top of the hill in the car from Kinlochbervie to Rhiconnich that Kylesku had been a training base unfortunately often a negative one. But experienced climactic extremes, everything from volcanic (takes my breath away every time), the view from the café for the XIIth flotilla of ‘x-craft’ or midget landscape also shapes the people who mayhem, through tropical and desert-like conditions (think (and kitchen sink!) in the Rock Stop in Unapool. There’s no submarines. Both these deep water live there. The legacy of the geological sandstone), to the grinding forces of massive glaciers shortage of volunteers to do the dishes! anchorages are the result of the area’s past is evident in many aspects of during the ice ages. Each phase adding another layer to the unique geological history. Everywhere “Not to mention Smoo cave, the back of the grave yard in people’s lives: from the materials they different types of rock we have today. Scourie for its views of Handa Island and waves in a storm, you go, there are stories to be found in build with, to the ways they make a the very rock of the landscape itself, The really big geological event, as far as Scotland is Sandwood Bay, the track up Loch Glendhu, Achiltibuie and living, the food they eat and the culture and in the place names, and from the concerned, took place 400 million years ago. Three the Summer Isles, Achmelvich beach, Clachtoll with its that holds them together. people who live there today. continents collided, incredibly slowly but with unimaginable broch, the Split Rock and meteorite curtain and fragments. And the bedrock of it all is, quite force, creating not only what would eventually become the I could go on and on!” This should give you a flavour of how These wild places really are special, and British Isles, but forcing the land upwards forming a huge much there is to see! need protecting. But so do the people mountain chain. This collision saw the birth pangs of many of Everywhere you A postage stamp printed in the Republic of Over the years I’ve been fortunate enough to have visited and communities within them. Com- Rwanda showing James Hutton, circa 2009 Scotland’s amazing mountains, mountains that draw visitors many of these places. And believe me there are many more: go, there are stories munities that need to be supported, from all across the globe. Mountains that have been further Lochinver and its pottery, Stoer Head and its lighthouse or to be found in the not allowed to die off. I was delighted to shaped over millennia by ice, wind and water to reach the Cape Wrath and its cafe at the end of the world, the worm very rock of the discover how involved local people are forms we see today. As the poet Norman MacCaig wrote in A rocks at Knochan Crag. You’ll soon realise that one visit landscape itself, in the geopark project. For example, in Man in Assynt: simply won’t be enough! and in the place the Rock Stop shop I bought a pair of names, and from wrist-warmers and there on the tag it ‘Glaciers, grinding West, gouged out And there’s always something new to discover about the the people who live said “Made with love to raise funds for these valleys, rasping the brown sandstone, human history of this area. Before Jean mentioned it, I hadn’t there today the NWH Geopark... to support and pro- and left, on the hard rock below – mote the remote and fragile communi- the ruffled foreland – this frieze of mountains, filed ties of North West Sutherland.” on the blue air – Stac Polly, Cul Beag, Cul Mor, Suilven, Canisp – James Hutton’s famous angular unconformity at Siccar Point a frieze and a litany.’ All this seemingly solid rock and yet how strange to think that our planet is Knockan Crag is another good place to start your journey still evolving. Still changing shape. We’re through deep time and this remarkable landscape. Thirteen still moving. The Atlantic Rift is growing, miles north of Ullapool on the A835, its Rock Room is open slowly but surely pulling America and all year round with trails that lead you to the most important Europe further away from each other. It features of this site. may only be a centimetre or two a year Here you’ll meet Messrs Peach and Horne, two geologists (think of your fingernails growing), but who, at the end of the 19th century, resolved many of the it’s happening nonetheless. To repeat geological conundrums of their day. In particular their Hutton’s profound words, “We find no This collision interpretation of the Moine Thrust, where some of the vestige of a beginning–no prospect of saw the birth clearest evidence for those colliding continents is to be an end.” pangs of many of found. The discoveries at Knockan Crag were instrumental in Visit the Geopark if you can, but if you’re Scotland’s amazing putting the vast North West Highland landscape very firmly not able to visit soon, don’t worry. The mountains, on the geological map and have had geologists flocking to North West Highlands have been about mountains that this area ever since. draw visitors from for a very long time, and aren’t going all across the globe I asked Jean for some of her favourite places. With no anywhere in a hurry.