West is Best ERRATIx OPEN UNIVERSITY GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY ~ WEST OF BRANCH ~ NEWSLETTER ~ JUNE 2007

Branch Organiser: South Queensferry Field Trip Treasurer: Jacqueline Wiles Hammy Corrance 21 Wedderburn Road Sun 2nd Sept 36 Bensley Avenue Dunblane Dr Andrew McLeish Stirling KA11 1AJ FK15 0FN Carboniferous rocks and fossils 01294 212801 01786 820127 Branch Web Site: [email protected] Dr McLeish has also offered to instruct us in local history, www.ougs-wb.org.uk famous people, ecology and Scottish football if there is time! Contact Jacqueline Wiles

BRANCH ORGANISER’S BULLETIN Hello Everyone, I would like to welcome the new members who have just joined the society and hope they enjoy the newsletters and field trips. For those of you who have not renewed and have forgotten, a renewal form can be downloaded from www.ougs.org and sent to [email protected] . This will (I promise) be the last reminder. There has just been a very successful trip to NE Scotland with everyone having a great time. The next trip planned is in September with Dr Andrew McLeish at South Queensferry, and I hope to see some of you there. I am still trying to arrange another couple of trips for later this year, but am having a bit of trouble with dates so far, but E.Scotland have trips in June and August for anyone who wants to get out in the summer. I think I am slowly coming to grips with job as Branch Organiser, and attended my first committee meeting in April. This was very enjoyable, apart from having to get up at 4.30 in the morning, but everyone was very helpful and it was good to put faces to names. A lot of the time I seem to be passing e-mails round but please let me know if you do not want any with attachments as I know that if you do not have broadband (as I don’t) they can take ages to download. The Society is looking for someone to take over as Newsletter Editor later in the year when David Jones’ term ends, so anyone interested should get in touch with him. I hope that you all have a good summer and do not fall too far behind if you’re still studying. Jacqueline

And from the Editor...... basement rocks – like Lewisian but where from?? – Hi everyone, Well the summer is moving on and the west (underlying all of Scotland), or the east some of us have been very busy!! The trip to the (Scandian event) or possibly Peru (again!!)?? After north east of Scotland went very well and we had a lunch we headed for Cromarty and Hugh Miller’s really great time. We began in Inverness Hostel on Cottage – fascinating. Saturday night was at the Friday evening where our leader gave us an Evanton, near Invergordon, and then we drove introduction to the geology of the week, and set off north to Golspie where we explored the Triassic on Saturday morning for the Black Isle and and Lower Jurassic conglomerates, sandstones and Cromarty, joined by two ‘local friends’. The mudstones of the shore section, wandering past the morning was spent on Eathie Shore, looking at imposing Dunrobin Castle and through masses of Moine psammites and some rather strange stunning bluebells in its grounds. We found a

1 possible reservoir rock for the Beatrice Oilfield, and an old quarry of Caithness flags and then made our the shale which might cap it, plus loads of fossils – way to the true north and Duncansby Head with its shells, burrows and coal. After lunch in the sun on spectacular stacks. We walked round the coast to the shore we visited the Orcadian Stone Company John o’ Groats, examining the sedimentary rocks, in Golspie to see a magnificent display of and some volcanics, with Orkney and the amazing wonderful rocks, minerals and fossils – truly one of cliffs of Hoy in the distance, and finally drove to the best – and a wee shop to spend money!! Lastly and our last hostel. we squeezed the bus through a tiny bridge under the railway to see Middle to Upper Jurassic sandstone south of , and then headed for the hostel at . On Monday morning we examined the Portgower Boulder Beds with intervening sandstones, shales and fossils, in the Upper Jurassic. Halfway along, we met Nigel Trewin with a group of ‘professional business’ geologists! A highlight was the ‘Fallen Stack of Portgower’ – a huge chunk of MORS which fell off the submarine Helmsdale Fault scarp in Kimmeridgian times. We lunched at a windy Lothbeg Point and then examined the Kimmeridgian sandstones and shales of the shore section with its ammonites and other fossils, admiring and identifying the local birds. Then it was back to finish the Brora area (we ran On the shore at Sarclet (by Ian Henderson) out of time yesterday!), with another tiny bridge (!), before enjoying tea, ice cream etc in this lovely Thursday began at Dwarick Pier, in the rain, and the little town!! Tuesday, and we were off to try some Upper ORS of Dunnet Head. The beds were about gold panning at Kildonan on a rather a cloudy, 0.5m thick, with erosive bases, and traces of mud damp day. Again we were joined by ‘two other and rip-up clasts. The cross-bedding structures friends’, and had some success in finding tiny indicated a braided river system, flowing to the NE, pieces of the ‘yellow stuff’. After lunch beside the and there were good examples of soft sediment burn, we set off for the Helmsdale shore section – deformation suggesting earthquake activity when more boulder beds (this time Helmsdale) with large the rocks were only partly lithified. Southeast of blocks of ORS and also clasts of MORS flagstones the pier, wave-cut platforms enabled us to examine with a coarse bioclastic matrix, interbedded with the rock more closely. They were deposited as sandstones and shales. As we approached Navidale large alluvial plains at the margin of Lake Orcadie, Bay (in the sunshine), a dramatic seaward plunging with eroded sediment carried by braided rivers from anticlinal closure of the boulder beds was exposed the vast Caledonian Mountains. on the shore. In the distance we could clearly see Dun Glas, where the Helmsdale Fault crosses the shore and leaves the coast. On Wednesday we left Helmsdale and headed north, first to the Camster Cairns, ancient mysterious Neolithic burial mounds, set in a dip in the hills, and probably in use for more than 1000 years. Then to Whaligo Geo, a cove accessed by means of thousands of steps. We drove north to Sarclet, another spectacular cove, with intriguing rocks that were folded and fractured, with low angle dislocations, possibly a result of the nearby junction of the Helmsdale, Great Glen and Wick Faults. Soft-sediment deformation in the cross-bedded Upper ORS of Dunnet Head (by Avril Cormack) Here we lunched in the sunshine. We travelled to

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We moved on to Brough Harbour where Middle granite sheet. On the beach were outcrops and (alternating sand and mud layers) and Upper ORS boulders of Port Mor marble, containing scapolite- meet, separated by a fracture zone due to movement diopside-orange spinel. Walking back across the on the Brough fault. After taking in the scenery at top of the cliff we found a string of retrogressed Dunnet Head, we drove to Dirlot and an pyroxenites with beautiful big dark crystals. unconformity between Moine schists and Middle ORS flagstones, with stromatolites coating the breccias between. Using the professional influence of one of our party, we obtained entry to a working quarry of Caithness flagstones for a very interesting visit, and lastly arrived at the disused Achanarras quarry, rooting around, with a permit, in the spoil heaps for some of its famous fish. In the evening we met for a group dinner in the Pentland Hotel, where Iain and everyone were thanked for such an enjoyable trip!!

Descending into Port Mor (by Bob Alderman)

Further west we came to Cnoc Mor, where strongly The party at Dunnet Head (by Bob Alderman) folded migmatitic gneisses display at least two phases of pre-Caledonian deformation, with folded It was Friday, our last day, and we drove west along axial surfaces producing hook-like structures (as the north coast to Portskerra harbour and the opposed to egg boxes or mushrooms!!). Then unconformity between Moine psammites and ORS across the Swordly Thrust to Glais Geo, near Farr (thought to be Middle). The sun, blue sky, wind Bay, where we traversed from the and rain kept coming and going all day!! Then to assemblage of quartzose gneisses to the hornblende Strathy Point, where a slice of very old lower schists/gneisses of the Clerkhill augen gneiss body, crustal gneisses and amphibolites were exposed. with huge ‘dent de cheval’ perthitic K-feldspars. We revelled in the garnets and searched for The augens were something to behold!!! Finally, staurolite before continuing towards Armadale, and near Clerkhill, in the rocks above the beach, we saw a granular quartz garnet rock on the Reismeave ‘some of the finest refolded folds in the British peninsula. Lunch in the sun on the hill and then off Isles’. One clearly showed three episodes of to the spectacular Port Mor gorge where folded and folding, three deformations, and was particularly deformed Moine biotite gneisses, amphibolites and amazing. granites to the west were separated from the tightly We returned to Thurso for the last night, and then folded, striped amphibolites of the Strathy complex dispersed on our separate ways on Saturday by a huge zone of sheared gneisses and morning, after a really fantastic week. amphibolites, intruded by a massive, red unfoliated Margaret

3 FUTURE EVENTS Trips……… Date Location Details Branch Contact June 30 East Lothian Yellow Craig to Cheese Bay: Prof Brian Upton. Geological Society Jul 7 Fife Ethie Shore: Maxine Akhurst. Edinburgh Geological Society Jul 7-14 Kindrogan Kindrogan but not SXR339 Ssi Jan Ashton-Jones 01432 870827 Jul 28 Gairloch Lewisian Complex: Prof Graham Park Geological Society Aug 25 Stirlingsire Campie Fells: Dr Peter Craig ESc Anne Burgess 01343 820834 Aug 25 Tayside Glen Clova: George Downie Aberdeen Geological Society Sept 9 Edinburgh South Queensferry: Dr Andrew McLeish WSc Jacqueline Wiles 01786 820127 Sept 9 Invernesshire Loch Ness, Glen Urquhart and Milton: George Downie, Sinclair Ross. Highland Geological Society Sept 9 Aberdeenshire Dalnabo Quarry and Deeside: Brian Jackson. Aberdeen Geological Society Oct Fossil Foray with Dr Lyall Anderson ESc Anne Burgess 01343 820834 Apr 19 or Cornwall West Cornwall and Lizard: Alan Holiday Wessex Sheila Alderman Apr 26, 2008 Week’s Field Trip WSc 01935 825379

Jan Ashton-Jones [email protected]; Anne Burgess [email protected]; Jacqueline Wiles [email protected] Sheila Alderman [email protected].

Contact details (preferably Branch Members): Aberdeen Geological Society (AGS) – Sidney Johnston, 07850 277145, [email protected]. Edinburgh Geological Society (EGS) – Mr Robert Reekie, 0131 447 7472, [email protected]. Geological Society of Glasgow – Margaret Donnelly, 0141 334 0559, [email protected]. Highland Geological Society – Carol James, 01808 531220, [email protected].

AGM & Burns Supper 11th -13th January 2008 Comrie Croft Hostel Advance Notice

Overnights are optional, AGM is free Contact Jacqueline Wiles, Anne Burgess

Disclaimer: Attendance at OUGS Events The OUGS has Public Liability Insurance Cover for field and indoor meetings, but Personal Accident Cover and Personal Liability Cover remain the responsibility and personal choice of the participant. There may be an element of appropriate cover included in house insurance or in travel insurance: although OUGS activities are not particularly dangerous members are advised to check whether exclusions apply to activities in which they plan to participate in case they wish to arrange further cover . An annual travel insurance may be the best solution for any member who regularly attends field events: this again is a matter of personal choice. Please note however that all members participating in overseas events will be required to have travel insurance for the duration of the event: this is so that participants are covered for Medical, Repatriation and Personal Liability expenses. The Personal Accident element remains the personal choice of the member and again members are advised to check exclusions so that they can make an informed decision about the cover they want.

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STRATHCLYDE RIGS RAMBLINGS

Progress is being made towards awarding Campsie Glen at Lennoxtown RIGS status. This historic area with excellent exposures of Cementstones and overlying Lower Carboniferous lavas witnessed an early field excursion by the budding Geological Society of Glasgow, which celebrates its 150th anniversary this year. Pending funding we are about to start work on an information leaflet, ‘The Geology of Campsie Glen and Surrounding Area’, which will be available locally. Our previous publication – ‘The Geology of Ardmore Point’ – has generated much public interest and many have visited the area. Work is continuing towards resuscitating one of Britain’s, nae The World’s most important geologic exposures, Fossil Grove, which is in severe danger of neglect by Glasgow District Council. Thanks to lots of effort by Seonaid Leishman and others within our group, and input by the Chair of the GSG, UKRIGS, and SNH we are at last making progress on preserving public access to this unique site in Victoria Park, Glasgow. Other sites we are working on include Muirshiel Park barite mine near Lochwinnoch, Portencross, and the Coalfield initiative at Muirkirk with the Scottish Resources Group. In April we organised a one day Geodiversity workshop at the BGS Edinburgh with representatives from the Scottish RIGS groups, Fossil Grove SNH, BGS, Northern Ireland, Northern England, Greenspace, Countryside Rangers, Scottish Resources Group, geoHeritage Fife, Local Authority Planning people, and members of the Geological Societies. This was a great success and hopefully has helped to promote Geodiversity in Scotland. Stuart Fairley

A follow-up to the ‘Evolution’ poem in the last edition – thanks to three of our members I now know what ‘Neocomian’ means – it was a name given to the lowest stage of the Cretaceous system. For further info see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neocomian. Ed.

ELECTRONIC ‘ERRATIX’ Almost half of our readers now receive their copy of ERRATIX via e-mail as a PDF file (300-500KB). If anyone else would like to do so, then please let me know (Adobe Reader can be downloaded free from www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html.). Benefits are You’ll receive your copy 2-3 days ahead of postal delivery It will be in glorious technicolour You can store your copy on hard disk or print off if you wish – saving shelf space Postal costs to the branch will be reduced.

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The Ian Gass Bursary. This award (up to £750) is made annually. Open to anyone who has studied with the OU (good grades in at least 3 Earth Science courses required) and wishes to pursue independent geological work, but who doesn’t already have a grant – PhD, MSc or PP (private passion) for example. Details from http://www3.open.ac.uk/Earth-Sciences/opp-bursaries.shtml.

David Jones's term as OUGS Newsletter Editor is coming to an end, and the Society needs a new Newsletter Editor. Could any member interested in filling this post please contact David at [email protected]. ?

JIM O’DONNELL

It is with great sadness that I have to inform you of the passing on the 9th February of one of the West of Scotland branch’s long-time members Jim O’Donnell. Jim was an enthusiastic OUGS member and a skilled photographer, whose presence on field trips will be sadly missed by all who knew him. In recent years his activities were somewhat curtailed due to serious illness and he wasn’t able to take part in branch activities as much as he would have liked. I and other members will carry fond memories of him from many of our trips including Inchnadamph, Elgin, the Mauchline Basin, and many others. After long days in the field we had many an entertaining evening in the bar discussing everything from ‘politics to peridotite’. In his earlier years Jim lived and worked in the Greenock area, when the town was at the heart of the British shipbuilding industry, and his hilarious tales of ‘derring-do’ and his knowledge of the town’s characters and history were very entertaining and informative. Later he moved to Stewarton in Ayrshire and began his studies with the Open University. His partner, Christina, and their late West Highland Terrier, ‘Ruairi’ would often accompany him on his geological sojourns which covered the length and breadth of Scotland. In particular Jim loved Glencoe and Rannoch Moor. Christina tells me that Ruairi must have been the most ‘weel-kent-Westie’ on geology in Scotland since Jim used to explain all to him! Arran under snow. Jim took this photo in the late nineties.

Jim’s ashes were scattered in Glencoe along with Ruairi’s earlier this year by Christina.

Stuart Fairley

.Editor : Margaret Donnelly, 56 White Street, Glasgow, G11 5EB tel: 0141 334 0559 email : [email protected].

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