Geosites Project

A key site for developing understanding of the Cambrian succession in NW Scotland - important for north Atlantic correlations and, more locally, for reconstructing the structures of the Moine Thrust Belt

This is a key locality for establishing the stratigraphic order of Cambrian rocks in NW Scotland - the type locality for the An t-Sron Formation, and its constituent members of the Fucoid Beds and Salterella Grit. The headland holds an antiform cored by the Pipe Rock (Eriboll Sandstone Formation), passing up through the An t-Sron and into the lowest part of the Durness Group carbonates. Building the lower part of the Cambrian stratigraphic section requires understanding the significantly more complex steep, eastern limb (locally over-turned, with thrust repetition) of the Kempie syncline.The Fucoid Beds and Salterella Grit are well-displayed, the two latter units yielding the typical fossils (olenellid trilobites and other taxa) enabling a Lower Cambrian age to be assigned to these rocks. The facies transition from tidal arenaceous units to the overlying calcareous formations of the Durness Group has been studied in detail and related to the overall palaeogeographic development of the region in Cambrian times. A key site in our understanding of the Cambrian rocks of northern Britain.