12 CHAPTER 2: THE PHYSICAL BACKGROUND ice-movement such as roches moutonnees, striations and plucked surfaces, Peacock suggests that the ice flowed from 2.1 GEOLOGY at least two, possibly three, centres. The first, and most spec- tacular, was on the high ground of south Lewis and north G Collins (1986) Harris, from which the ice flowed radially. The second was an elongated dome of ice close to the west coast of Barra and (The following is based on a report by the late Geoff Collins. extending northwards off the west coast of South Uist and It is offered here in memory of a good friend. Ar dheis Dé go Benbecula into the western part of North Uist. The axis of raibh a anm) the dome was roughly north/south, the ice flowing off to the east across the Uists. The direction of ice-movement near the The Outer Hebrides (Figure 5) are composed almost entirely west coast of the Uists is obscure, indicating that the ice-shed of Pre-Cambrian basement rocks, known collectively as was very close to the present day coastline. The possible third Lewisian (Smith & Fettes 1979; Fettes et al 1992). These centre was a shallow dome over north Lewis. rocks mostly comprise a series of monotonous grey gneisses, The valley glacier phase was confined to south Lewis often with hornblendic streaks and patches, which are cut by and north Harris. Peacock describes many features of this dykes and sills of altered basic igneous rocks to form amphi- phase, including morainic drift, meltwater deposits and land- bolites and metadolerites. In south-west Lewis and Harris, forms. Included in this phase is the magnificent Glen Valtos extensive granite veins are to be found. Bodies of anorthosite meltwater channel of south-west Lewis. occur in south Harris and east of the Butt of Lewis. Altered Much of Lewis, north of Stornoway, is overlain by a sedimentary rocks comprising biotitic, graphitic and calcare- peat-covered sheet of till. To the south the sheet is discontin- ous gneisses, quartzites and rare marbles are locally impor- uous; the till occurring on the distal side of rock knobs. tant but form only a small part of the assemblage. In south Moundy till is found extensively in North Uist between Harris the metasediments are associated with large bodies of Lochmaddy and Carinish. Brown sandy till, several metres metamorphosed intermediate and igneous rocks. Black, thick, has been recorded in North Uist at Hoglan Bay and glassy pseudotachylite, found in many localities in the is- north-east of Newtonferry, brown sandy till, up to 2 m thick, lands, is especially common along the Outer Hebrides Thrust forms part of Hornish Point in South Uist. Zone, which extends along the length of the Long Island, The presence of erratics foreign to the Uists and the is- generally near the east coast. East of the Outer Hebrides lands to the south, has long been known (Jehu & Craig Thrust Zone in South Uist, the eastern gneisses include 1923a; 1923b; 1926). As well as the Torridonian and Cam- granulitic facies of gneisses, mylonites and intensely crushed brian rocks mentioned above, pebbles of hard chalk and flint rocks. The Lewisian rocks are cut by a variety of Permo-Car- have been found in Vatersay. Boulders of hornblende-por- boniferous and Tertiary basic igneous dykes. phyry are common along the western seaboard of North Uist and Benbecula and are found in the Monach Islands. These erratics are probably the remnants of the redistribution of the 2.1.1 Quaternary geology raised beaches in Barra and the southern islands by the Hebridean ice-sheet phase. The Quaternary geology of the Outer Hebrides is the subject With the coming of warmer times and the disappearance of a report by J D Peacock (1984) of the British Geological of the ice-sheets, a period of slight submergence of the is- Survey. According to this, the earliest feature of probable Pleis- lands followed. In north-west Lewis, a number of lochs have tocene age was the formation of a raised platform and cliff of been impounded by storm beaches. There are many records marine erosion, remnants of which are found only in the ex- of archaeological sites and of peat deposits between tide- treme north of Lewis and the Eye peninsula. Their absence marks (Ritchie 1979). elsewhere in the Outer Hebrides may result from glacial ero- Dunes and extensive flat or gently sloping stretches of sion, a protective cover of glacier ice, or a tilt below sea-level. blown sand characterise the hinterland backing sandy Raised beach gravels are found in patches on these platforms beaches. The blown sand, known as machair, is only a few and also on the north-west coast of Barra, where they are metres above sea-level. It is usually siliceous, but may contain overlain by till. The clasts of the gravels are mostly of Lewisian up to 80% calcium carbonate, in the form of comminuted gneiss (Plate 6), but red sandstone and arkose, probably marine shell fragments (Ritchie 1971, and below). Small ar- Torridonian, and possibly Cambrian quartzites, similar to those eas are present in Lewis and north Harris on the north-west of the north-west Highlands, may be found. Micaceous and west coasts, the largest (circa 1.5 sq km) being west of psammites of Moine type are found in the gravels of Barra. Barvas. In south Harris, the dunes and machair are associated Thus, there is evidence for the suggestion that the formation of with the huge sandy beaches of Northton and Traigh the raised platforms took place before, or early in, the Ice Age Luskentyre, on the west coast. The machair reaches its great- during which ice from the Scottish mainland crossed the ex- est development on the islands in the Sound of Harris, treme north of Lewis and probably over the more southerly is- through North Uist, Benbecula and on to the southern end of lands. Tills formed during this phase were probably reworked South Uist. It has been estimated that dunes and machair oc- by the sea in warmer times to form the raised beaches. cupy 10% of the land surface in these areas (Peacock 1984). A period of intense glaciation followed in which the Further south in Barra its development is slight. whole of the Outer Hebrides except possibly the extreme north of Lewis) was heavily glaciated. Peacock divides this phase into the Hebridean Ice-sheet phase, and a later valley glacier phase. From observations of numerous features of 13 Figure 5. The solid geology of the Western Isles with machair beach units indicated 2.2 MACHAIR GEOMORPHOLOGY IN THE WESTERN ISLES Machair land varies considerably in form and extent. Of the 98 units of the Western Isles, 38% have little or no true dune W Ritchie (1986) ridges; the coastal edge consists of a narrow ridge of accreting sand with long dune grasses better described as edge accumula- From Sanday in the south to the northern tip of Lewis, most tion rather, than as coastal dunes. Size also varies although most of the Atlantic coast is characterised by a series of blown sand machair areas are relatively extensive. Small bayhead units are landforms, collectively known as machair. The most exten- infrequent and largely confined to Harris and Lewis. One dis- sive areas occur in Barra and the Uists and it is only in Lewis, tinctive characteristic of machair in the Western Isles is the high north of the Eye Peninsula that machair occurs on the Minch shell content of the sand. In general, the shell sand content of coast. Figure 5 shows the distribution of these beach and Hebridean beaches, dunes and machair is the highest in Britain, machair units but the figure is misleading since each dot rep- but there are areas with little or no shell content. The actual dis- resents the centre of an area and in most areas the distribu- tribution is described in Table 4. tion is continuous, as for example in South Uist where the Other characteristics of machair relate to relief and mor- entire west coast is machair land (Plate 7). phology, viz where there are dunes they have a mean height 14 Plate 6. Lewissian gneiss Plate 7. Machair plain at Ardkenneth, South Uist 15 CaCO3 content 10% 1140% 4170% >70% 2.2.2 Process No. of beach units 2 16 55 27 Continuing coastline erosion is more severe in some areas Table 4. CaCO3 content of beach units than in others and this could be due to a combination of sub- mergence and coastal sand deficiency. Wind erosion in this of 9.9 m in Barra, 10.1 m in Uists, 14.1 m in Harris and high-energy Atlantic seaboard can be severe if, for any rea- 10.1 m in Lewis; the Scottish average being less than 7 m. son, surface vegetation is disturbed. Blowouts and more gen- Equally striking is the altitude to which machair can extend eral deflation carry sand landwards to be redeposited, uphill; 42 m in Barra, more than twice the range of most sometimes at high altitudes, on adjacent hill sides. Very other areas in Scotland. strong winds are most frequent from the north west, but the Considering machair per se, 31% of the total area is general resultant direction is south to north or south-west to plain, 28% hilly, 5% hillocky, 31% undulating and 4% other. north-east. Sand tends to encroach into adjacent lochs con- Thus the physical characteristics of machair vary consider- verting them to freshwater marshes. A significant process fac- ably, partly as a result of the underlying surface upon which tor is grazing pressure, either natural such as rabbits, or these distinctive landforms have developed.