Skiag Bridge
Geological Conservation Review site | GCR #901 | Structural and Metamorphic Geology | Moine
Scotland's geosites are chosen because of their local, national or international importance. Take only photos, leave only footprints: avoid causing any damage to this site. You can walk almost anywhere in Scotland without the need to ask permission or keep to paths, but you have a responsibility to care for your own safety, to respect people's privacy and peace of mind and to cause no damage.
The right of access does not extend to quarries, building sites or any land where public access is prohibited, or to the collection of geological samples.
Summary
Accessible area, much used for student mapping, that displays intricate repetitions of Cambrian stratigraphic units.
The imbricate zone involving Cambrian strata within the Sole Thrust Sheet is particularly well-developed in this site, stream sections demonstrating as many as thirteen tectonically repeated sequences of Fucoid Beds, Serpulite Grit and Durness Limestone within a third of a mile. At Skiag Bridge, and southwards towards Inchnadamph, the Sole Thrust Plane lies within or above the Grudaidh dolomite of the Durness Formation, but near Achmore it cuts downwards into the underlying Fucoid Beds, remaining at this lower horizon northwards to Loch Glencoul. The site thus provides what is perhaps the clearest demonstration of the development of a step or ramp within a thrust plane and as such has an important bearing upon our understanding of the evolution and propagation of thrusts within the Moine Thrust Belt in particular and thrust zones in general.
