Faraid Head
Geological Conservation Review site | GCR #1310 | 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.
This site is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). It is an offence to intentionally or recklessly damage the protected natural features of a SSSI, and this includes unauthorised sample collection.
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
The Faraid Head Moine sequence was originally interpreted as support for the contention that the Moine Schists lay conformably upon the Durness succession and figured prominently in the so-called Highland Controversy. However, the true significance of this Moine outcrop was realised when it was recognised to be identical to that found above the Moine Thrust Plane at Eriboll and it was accordingly reinterpreted as a faulted outlier of the Moine Thrust. It forms the most westerly part of the Thrust Zone found in northern Sutherland and shows Moine lithologies lying in thrust contact with the Cambro- Ordovician rocks of the stable foreland. This contributed the first direct evidence for the amount of translation within this part of the Thrust Belt and led to a worldwide appreciation of the scale of orogenic tectonism.
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