Argyll and the Islands - A Landscape Fashioned by Geology

Encompassing much of the ancient Scots' kingdom of Dalriada, the area described in this book is dominated by long peninsulas and islands, narrow lochs and some of the roughest, rocky terrain in Scotland. The dominant grain of the landscape, as revealed by its north-easterly orientated, boulder-strewn ridges and boggy valleys, results directly from the great 'Caledonian' earth movements that occured some 470 million years ago. The rugged splendour of the area is largely a much more recent inheritance, from glaciers that scoured the landscape during the Ice Age and from roller-coaster changes in sea level.