The Glencoul Nappe and the Assynt Culmination

Abstract

It is unnecessary to emphasize the clarity with which overthrust structures are exhibited in the North-West Highlands of Scotland. Publications by B. N. Peach, J. Home, and their colleagues on the Geological Survey, following upon others of slightly earlier date by C. Callaway and C. Lapworth, have opened up this wonderland of geology to visitors from all parts of the world. Exposures of an overthrust mountain front extend for 120 miles from Durness to Skye. They exhibit many variations of style, of which no single locality is fully representative. At the same time, for a short excursion there is one specially favoured district. It lies in and about the Assynt culmination, where erosion has cut back the Moine nappe for several miles behind the normal line of outcrop, and has thus fashioned an extensive semi-window, through which an intriguing view can be obtained of underlying complexities (Fig. 1). The most useful publications on this district are the Geological Survey maps on the scales of a ¼ inch, 1 inch, and 6 inches to the mile, coupled with the great North-West Highland memoir and the beloved penny Guide to the Assynt Model. The most convenient hotel is Inchnadamph at the head of Loch Assynt.