Cuillin Hills
Geological Conservation Review site | GCR #83 | Igneous Petrology | Tertiary Igneous
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.
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Summary
The most rugged landscape in Scotland provides stunning outcrops of an eroded sub-volcanic structure, part of the British Tertiary Igneous Province.
The Cuillins Complex is the largest in Britain to consist almost entirely of basic/ultrabasic rocks. The first of the Hebridean central complexes to be systematically investigated, it has been the subject of much recent research which, although partly unpublished, has allowed the structure of the mass to be reinterpreted. Even so, the Complex as a whole is still imperfectly understood and much potential for further research remains. The site also includes the rocks of the recently recognised Srath na Creitheach Centre - mainly agglomerates cut by later grantites but including the only exposures of bedded tuff known in the vents of Skye centres. The Centre would also appear to offer opportunities for further research.
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Related geosites
Overlaps with
Granitic veins, offshoots of the Western Red Hills granites, intruding layered gabbros of the Cuillins, the critical evidence for Geikie that the Red Hills complex post dated that of the Cuillins.
Rob Butler
Looking onto the intrusive contact of the Red Hills granite into the layered basics of the Cuillins - a key locality (Druim Hain), in Geikie's demolition of Judd's interpretation of cross-cutting relationships and relative timing of the various intrusions of Skye.
Rob Butler
Looking across Camasunary Bay into the heart of the Cuillins - in typical conditions...
Rob Butler
Partial melting - represented by pale granitic veins, of Torridon Group sandstones on the margins of the Cuillin complex, at Camasunary.
Rob Butler