Alan McKirdy Livres

The latest in a new series of books which explain how Scotland's scenery was made, why it looks the way it does today and how it has changed over millions of years

One of 4 books to launch a brand-new series on Scotland's geology and landscapes which explain how Scotland's scenery was made, why it looks the way it does today and how it has changed over millions of years

The south of Scotland has a long and turbulent geological past. Perhaps most notably, it marks the place where, 432 million years ago, an ocean, once as wide as the north Atlantic, was compressed by a convergence of ancient lands and then ceased to be.Deserts covered the land with thick layers of brick-red coloured rocks, known as the Old Red Sandstone, piled up and dumped by rivers and streams that crisscrossed the area. Around 432 million years ago, violent explosive volcanic activity gave rise to the prominent landscape features recognised today as the Eildon Hills.In later geological times, the area was blanketed with massive sand dunes, later compressed to create the building stones from which Dumfries, Glasgow and other towns and cities, were constructed. It is also the place where the modern science of geology was born. James Hutton, star of the Scottish Enlightenment, found inspiration from his study of the local rocks. Sites he described almost 250 years ago are still hailed as amongst the most historic and important rock exposures to be found anywhere in the world.

This history of the geology of Central Scotland begins 400 million years ago and brings the reader on a remarkable journey, to Pictish times and the Industrial Revolution. Part of the Landscapes in Stone series.

James Hutton (1726-97), one of the world's first environmentalists was ahead of his time in his deductions about the way our planet functions. He was also an innovative farmer, a successful entrepreneur and a man with endless intellectual curiosity. This third edition has been thoroughly revised and expanded.

The Small Isles comprise the Inner Hebridean islands of Rum, Eigg, Canna and Muck. The landscapes of these beautiful, remote islands tell of erupting volcanoes, an ancient ecosystem that included dinosaurs and an ancient desert landscape. The geological history stretches back 3 billion years to the earliest events recorded on Earth.