Table of Contents

Contents



1. The Crunch of Continents

- Various earth-shattering events of the last two billion years: Scotland crashes into England; the UK drifts north through tropics; the nudge from Africa; the opening of the Atlantic.



2. The Work of Ice

- Glaciers carved the shapes as we see them today



3. Gneiss Times

- The Lewisian Gneiss, in the Outer Hebrides and Wester Ross; landscape of knock and lochan; a moment in the Malverns



4. The Monsters of Torridon

- Sandstone lands of Wester Ross; buried landscapes; the origin of our oxygen



5. Quartz and Quartzite

- Beinn Eighe and the Grey Corries; the Moine Thrust



6. Squashed Stones: Slate to Schist

- Metamorphism, rocks cooked and crushed; shale to slate to schist; the Mountains of Moine and the Dalradian schist



7. Greywacke and the Ruggednessof Rhinog

- How ocean-bottom sludge became the rock of the Rhinogs



8. Shales and Underwater Mud

- More ocean sludge in the Howgills, Isle of Man, mid-Wales and the Southern Uplands; the life and times of the graptolite; Charles Lapworth in Dobbs Linn



9. All-Terrain Lakeland

- Volcanoes and slate, grey shale and granite; four different sorts of country but only one Lakeland



10. Red-Hot Flying Avalanche: Ignimbrites in Snowdonia

- Various cataclysms above Llyn Idwal



11. Walking the Fault

Faults, and a walk along one in particularm the Rossett Gill Fault of Lakeland



12. Andesite and Rhyolite

- More volcanoes, at Ben Nevis and Glen Coe; collapsing cauldrons



13. Granite Lands

- Cairngorms, Dartmoor, Arran, Mourne, Galloway - very different but all of them a bit grim; the cause of tors



14. Stone Arriving Sideways: Dolerite Intrusions

- The Whin Sill in the north Pennines, Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh and God vs Mr James Hutton



15. The Sands of Time

- The Old Red Sandstone of the Brecon Beacons; the New Red Sandstone fails to make mountains



16. Mountain Limstone, Millstone Grit

- Yorkshire and the Peak District; lime to grit to shale: the Yoredale Series



17. The Black Magic of Gabbro

- The Tertiary Volcanic Province; the Black Cuillin of Skye



18. Basalt Lands and the Opening of the Atlantic

- The Death of Gaia; Lakeland Lavas, black rocks of Snowdonia, and the Quiraing on Skye; a round-up of the red-hot rocks



19. A Two Hundred Million Year Walk Over Dufton Pike

- Brekaing the Law of Superposition behind Dufton Pike, with a visit to the Great Whin Sill



Conclusion

- My country, your country, further reading and more things to see



Reading about Rocks

Glossary

Index

Index of Places

Acknowledgements

About the Author

RONALD TURNBULL is a geographer and a walker. Author of over a dozen highly regarded walking books and guides, he has won seven awards from the Outdoor Writers' Guild. Ronald lives in Thornhill in Dumfriesshire.

Reviews

Don't be surprised if he isn't in for another award after this! Westmorland Gazette The interesting content combined with Turnbull's light-hearted tone makes this an enjoyable pre-hike read. Outdoor Photography