Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-4rdrl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-04T09:57:44.505Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

V.—The Geology of Ardgour, Argyllshire

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 July 2012

H. I. Drever
Affiliation:
University of St Andrews.

Extract

Between 1897 and 1903 Ardgour was investigated and surveyed for the Geological Survey by J. S. Grant Wilson. His results were published in the Summaries of Progress of the Geological Survey for 1897, 1898, 1900, and 1903, and were later included in Sheet 53 of the Survey's 1 inch to 1 mile maps and in the Glencoe Memoir. Little additional work had been attempted until 1933 when R. M. Shackelton commenced remapping the area. Shackelton was prevented from completing this work, and the writer supplanted him to continue research on the area from 1934 to 1937 under the direction of Professor C. E. Tilley.

The Ardgour estate comprises a rugged, mountainous tract of Argyllshire north of Loch Linnhe. One large and several smaller masses of epidiorite discovered by Grant Wilson (text-fig. 1) have been intruded into rocks of the Moine Series. Apart from large areas occupied by felspathic granulite and other quartzose types there are also limestones in an amount unusual in the normal Moine Series, some finely banded hornfelses and a zone surrounding the epidiorite masses composed apparently of a felspathised or granitised granulite (indicated by a broken line in text-fig. 1). Pelitic types are important in the western part of the area, and, round Sgurr Dhomhnuill in particular, they have apparently been injected by acid material. This at least is the present view, although the ground has yet to be thoroughly studied. There are a number of lamprophyre and basalt dykes, and some granite, in most places brecciated (with the occasional production of mylonite, e.g. Ben Ba), occurs along the line of the Great Glen Fault. Most of the ground is well exposed, although there may be glacial deposits inland and marine deposits round the coast (not differentiated in text-fig. 1).

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Society of Edinburgh 1941

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References to Literature

Anderson, J. G. C., 1935. “The Arrochar Complex,” Geol. Mag., vol. lxxii, pp. 263283.Google Scholar
Bailey, E. B., and Maufe, H. B., 1916. “The Geology of Ben Nevis and Glencoe,” Mem. Geol. Surv. Scotland.Google Scholar
Barrow, G., etc., 1905. “The Geology of the Country round Blair Atholl, Pitlochry, and Aberfeldy,” Mem. Geol. Surv. Scotland.Google Scholar
Bosworth, T. O., 1910. “Metamorphism around the Ross of Mull Granite,” Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. Lond., vol. lxvi, pp. 376481.Google Scholar
Daly, R. A., 1933. Igneous Rocks and the Depths of the Earth, New York.Google Scholar
Drever, H. I., 1936. “Symplectite-bearing Nodules in the Ardgour Marble, Argyllshire,” Geol. Mag., vol. lxxiii, no. 868, pp. 448468.Google Scholar
Drever, H. I., 1939. “A Petrological Study of the Limestones in the Moine Series of Ardgour, Argyllshire,” Geol. Mag., vol. lxxvi, no. 906, pp. 501518.Google Scholar
Goldschmidt, V. M., 1911. “Die Kontakt-metamorphose im Kristianiagebiet,” Vidensk.-Selsk. Skrift. Kristiania, no. 10.Google Scholar
Goldschmidt, V. M., 1920. “Die Injectionsmetamorphose im Stavanger-gebiet,” Vidensk.-Selsk. Skrift. Kristiania, no. 10.Google Scholar
Harker, A., 1932. Metamorphism, Methuen & Co., London.Google Scholar
Hill, J. B., and Kynaston, H., 1900. “On Kentallenite and its Relation to Other Igneous Rocks in Argyllshire,” Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. Lond., vol. lvi, pp. 531557.Google Scholar
Horne, J., and Hinxman, L. W., 1914. “The Geology of the Country round Beauly and Inverness,” Mem. Geol. Surv. Scotland.Google Scholar
Macgregor, A. G., and Kennedy, W. Q., 1932. “The Morven-Strontian ‘Granite’,” Summ. Progr. Geol. Surv. for 1931, pt. 2, pp. 109119.Google Scholar
Peach, B. N., etc., 1910. “The Geology of Glenelg, Lochalsh, and S.E. Part of Skye,” Mem. Geol. Surv. Scotland.Google Scholar
Peach, B. N., 1912. “The Geology of Ben Wyvis, Cam Chuinneag, Inchbae, and the Surrounding Country,” Mem. Geol. Surv. Scotland.Google Scholar
Peach, B. N., and Horne, J., 1929. Chapters on the Geology of Scotland, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Phemister, J., 1936. “Scotland, the Northern Highlands,” British Regional Geology, p. 17.Google Scholar
Read, H. H., 1923. “The Geology of the Country round Banff, Huntly, and Turriff,” Mem. Geol. Surv. Scotland.Google Scholar
Read, H. H., 1927. “The Igneous and Metamorphic History of Cromar, Deeside, Aberdeenshire,” Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., vol. lv, pp. 317353.Google Scholar
Read, H. H., 1931. “The Geology of Central Sutherland,” Mem. Geol. Surv. Scotland.Google Scholar
Read, H. H., etc., 1926. “The Geology of Strath Oykell and Lower Loch Shin,” Mem. Geol. Surv. Scotland.Google Scholar
Richey, J. E., and Kennedy, W. Q., 1939. “The Moine and Sub-Moine Series of Morar, Inverness-shire,” Bull. Geol. Surv. Gt. Brit., no. 2, pp. 2645.Google Scholar
Tilley, C. E., 1921. “The Pre-Cambrian Paragneisses of S. Eyre Peninsula, S. Australia,” Geol. Mag., vol. lviii, pp. 255.Google Scholar
Tilley, C. E., 1924. “Contact Metamorphism in the Comrie Area of the Perthshire Highlands,” Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. Lond., vol. lxxx, pp. 2270.Google Scholar
Williamson, W. O., 1935. “The Composite Gneiss and Contaminated Granodiorite of Glen Shee, Perthshire,” Quart.-Journ. Geol. Soc. Lond., vol. xci, pt. 3, pp. 382419.Google Scholar