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Our last traveling day in Scotland took us from Fort William to Glasgow by way of Glencoe and Loch Lomond, with an extended stop at Stirling Castle. We were traveling once again through the Central Highlands which are composed largely of Dalradian Supergroup rocks and granitic intrusions.

Many of our destinations in Scotland gave an impression of permanence, of past geological events. Glencoe was different, as we could see evidence of fairly recent mudflows and mass wasting, such as the alluvial cone shown above. Features like this are seen in the very geologically active Death Valley (minus the green stuff, of course). In Death Valley, processes are accelerated due to recent crustal movements. Here in Glencoe, the activity is more related to recent steepening by glacial activity. We were within a few miles of the source region for Scotland's glaciers, at Rannach Moor.

And what cute animals! These are the Highland "Coos". They are obviously well-adapted to the cold conditions of the Highlands.

Glencoe was the site of one of the more tragic episodes in Scotland history, the massacre of members of the MacDonald Clan at the direction of  king William in 1692. The treacherous act still rankles to the present day.

Glencoe today is peaceful, and lies at the center of a spectacular backpacking and hiking region. The granitic intrusions making up Ben Nevis and Glencoe are the exposed 'innards' of caldera (cauldron) complexes (see geological notes below).

This lonely, cloudy, flat country is the Rannach Moor. It was from here that ice flowed in all directions to cover most all of Scotland and northern England.

We drove past pretty Loch Lomond, crossed the Highlands Boundary Fault, and were soon approaching the town of Stirling and the famous castle.

The stone carvings were fascinating...

The castle was full of dark and mysterious passageways. I felt like a child in a fairy tale!

The castle commanded a formidable view of the region. It was built on an outcrop of volcanic rock, and was well-defensible, which was necessary, because it was constantly in the middle of battles, including the pivotal battle of Bannockburn in 1314, which made Robert the Bruce the uncontested king of Scotland, and Scotland an independent country.

We could see across the valley to the Wallace Monument, which commemorates Scotland's hero (yeah, the guy in "Braveheart")

We ended the day in Glasgow. Not much in the way of geology, but there was time to discover the new Science Museum. It was similar in function to the Exploratorioum, but the architecture was truly unique...

Although scale is difficult to distinguish, the structure is four stories high. And great fun inside!

One last night in Scotland, and we were headed home....

Geological Notes:

As described previously, the Dalradian Supergroup formed in late Proterozoic time, and was severely metamorphosed during the Caledonian Orogeny. Shortly afterward, about 400 mya, granitic rocks were intruded into the folded and metamorphosed sediments. The Ben Nevis and Glencoe intrusions are unique, however.

When the granite magmas were intruding into the surrounding country rocks, occasional tongues of magma reached the surface, causing volcanic eruptions. If the eruptions were big enough, the loss of volume caused the earth surface to collapse into the vacated magma chamber, forming a caldera, or cauldron (as they are called in Great Britain). The western United States was witness to such an event 7,000 years ago at Crater Lake, Oregon, and 710,000 years ago at Mammoth Lakes. Both of these events left gaping holes in the ground miles across and thousands of feet deep.

The uniqueness of Ben Nevis and Glencoe is that the cauldron collapse took place 400 million years ago, and erosion has since removed several kilometers of rock, so the cauldron complexes stand exposed in three dimensions.

Passing south of Glencoe, we traversed a low flat area called the Rannoch Moor, which is underlain by another granitic intrusion that is less resistant to erosion. We then entered into rugged mountain country underlain by Dalradian schists. At Callander we passed the Highlands Boundary Fault, and entered a rolling landscape underlain by Devonian Old Red Sandstone almost all the way to Stirling. We were back within the Midland Valley, and were in it all the way to Glasgow.