Imagine the world as it was. Just walk around Glencoe.
Go back millions of years, well before mankind. But after the worst ice ages. On your vacation, just imagine the mountain scenery around the Glencoe area. Glaciers have scoured out the valleys. They have already dumped the huge boulders in the valleys, the remnants of their terminal moraines. Earthquake eruptions have already caused huge chasms and cliff faces where roped rock climbers now go for sport. The slow weathering of the mountain tops centimetre by centimetre, year by year, has caused the mountain scree that runs under your feet to-day and is so tough on your knees. It has reduced the height of the mountains to mere 4,000 foot stumps from the giants of 14,000 feet they were once, the size of the Alps, perhaps 40 million years before.
Our Earth is 4500 million years old. The oldest rocks that can be seen around Glencoe are over half that age, being some of the oldest rocks on Earth.
The Opening of the Atlantic
The USA used to be joined to Europe. Some 60 million years ago the huge volcanic centres of Rhum, Ardnamurchan, Skye, Mull and Arran in Western Scotland were active. Vast outpourings of basaltic magma occurred as Northwest Europe split from Greenland forming the North Atlantic Ocean in between. As you drive to Ardnamurchan lighthouse, if you keep your eyes skinned you’ll see yourself driving in a big circle around the old volcanic core. The shape makes it quite easy to spot.
The big volcanic activity ceased about 50 million years ago,and the major scenery forming event of the Glaciations began about 2 million years ago to the end of the Great Ice Age some 10,000 years ago. The landforms produced by this glaciation are well-known: U-shaped valleys as seen in Glencoe – the Hidden Valley is what is called a Hanging Valley. You can see glacial striations (lines) on rock faces particularly buttresses, where rock fragments and boulders have been dragged over the surface by the ice; and the deposition of moraines at the snouts and sides of glaciers as they melt and retreat. Look around the Clachaig gully for example. Just stand on the roadside and look up. This is where Harry Potter was filmed and is recognised as one of the most beautiful places on earth. Earthquakes, even to-day
To-day everything seems quiet and peaceful, but there is turbulence underneath still. The region has a long history of earthquake activity, one of the earliest recorded events being in 1597 when tremors were reported from Ross and Cromarty to Perth. The most recent rumble and shake was last year in Glenfinnan, the site of the Harry Potter train viaduct scene, and this was felt for twenty miles around in the middle of the night.
The easy method of looking back millions of years.
Yet, if you have a mind so to do, it is not difficult to view this world exactly as it was. Exactly. It will take you less than an hour from your vacation rental cottage. To-days human existence will be tiny specks and easy to ignore. They’ve only been here for the 10,000 years since the last Ice Age. A little dreaming and you are back in time. It will take you three hours to get to the top. Just do the Cuil Hill walk to the top. 45 minutes, nothing in it, on the other side of the Bay. Look North, South, East and West. You are looking back millions of years.
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