Inverness Evening

We found the rocks known as “Hutton’s Section” this mornin in Edinburgh. The climb up the crags was steep but nowhere near as steep as to Siccar Point. So that pilgrimage took less time than we had imagined it would. Here are the famous rocks:

These show that a liquid intruded into and around a solid rock, the first time anyone thought that could be preserved in rocks. Arthur’s Seat, the volcanic plug we climbed to see these, was bigger in Hutton’s time; much has since been quarried for all those cool buildings in the city.
Someone carved a symbol into the volcanic rock.

We wondered what it might mean, until Brian realized it is a geologic map symbol for crags, which is what we were climbing on. Probably carved by geology students.

The crags are steep, but the trail went along the base.

I got a close up of Scots Broom, which is found all over the hills here.

Then we took a train to Inverness to meet the field trip leaders. On the way, we spoke with a mother and daughter who were in the seats across the table from us on the train. Their lively conversation made the trip go quickly. 

Now the pace of our trip will change. Tomorrow morning we will be on the bus by 8:00 AM and will learn all kinds of interesting things about the tectonics of this famous area. The trip leaders seem nice, and a number of other participants were there, but we did not meet anyone else yet. We will be on two 14-passenger buses for the next five days. One day includes a 5 km hike. The weather predictions are for sun and only a bit of rain. Couldn’t be better!

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