Sunday 14^th September

Cullen to West Sands Bay

After a confused start, trying to work out who should be in which mini-bus and making sure no-one was left behind, we drove to Cullen to start our geological labours. Despite George’s hard work our confusion was to continue; but in areas, previously, we had not thought to be confused!

On the shore at Cullen, we dodged golf balls as we looked at Old Red Sandstone. This, although red, looked as if it was laid down yesterday and very little of it was sandstone. Mostly it was very immature breccia which had not travelled far – much of it was Cullen Quartzite (of which, more, shortly), and the finer grained horizons looked like desert playas.

But our main objective was the Cullen Quartzite. Trying to find structure in this massive unit is virtually impossible as internal bedding, banding, disparity, indeed any internal variation cannot be seen. But follow it eastwards past the town, to the old dump and beyond, you can see that what we thought was a nice simple syncline, wasn’t! The rocks, by now a variable pelite, were younging in the wrong direction!

A long walk eastwards brought us into the West Sands group, which is rather shalier. The regional metamorphism has cooked them to appear as quartz-mica-garnet schist, and in these we can really see the complexities of the geology – folds, refolded folds; plunging in all sorts of directions. So much tectonism replaces all the sedimentary structures; the overwhelming complexity of the Dalradian was manifest.

Here on the beach in bright sunshine we saw rocks of the top of the Appin group. The rocks of the very late Pre-Cambrian are the base on which sat all the other rocks we would see in the next few days.

Highly contorted beds included an alternating sequence of calcareous schists and limestones together with black anoxic muds. In the schists crystals grew along and across the foliation. Quartz veins followed the folding and varied in thickness to accommodate the change in thickness of the schistose bands. During the formation of these rocks the landmass Rhodonia was near the southern arctic region. The landmass was splitting apart at this time.

When lunch was declared a few of us took time off to visit the local fish smoke-house. Filleting of haddock was done in two deft strokes with knives as sharp as razors. Seagulls found much to eat from the waste skips outside. Fish, smoked and unsmoked were taken away later, to be stored in freezers at the chalet site.

Then a walk to the other side of the bay to examine an exposure of O.R.S. ("’Orrible Rusty Sediments") Small red slabs within the conglomerate appeared to be aligned – a flow structure perhaps. The reef itself was formed from debris from higher ground. I was reminded of the clasts in the Dolomitic Conglomerate back home.

Leaving Sanine we made our way eastwards to Portsoy. Here intensely folded metamorphic rocks are intruded by dykes before and after the metamorphism.

Prismatic porphyroblasts – mainly of kyanite morphology are now downgraded (by the later intrusives?) to andalusite. Staurolite was found near the swimming pool. Serpentine, derived from basic igneous bodies was on sale in the local rock shop and advertised as Portsoy Marble.

A subduction zone was said to have been responsible for the metamorphism of the older granites and the xenoliths within them. Crystals within the granites showed strain brought about by the regional stresses as the magma cooled. In places a rock showing "augen" structures possessed the colours of granite, rather than gneiss.

The Cowhythe Gneiss – a migmatised metasediment containing Sillimanite and cordierite was also seen here.

The day’s geology ended with a brief visit to a small area at the rear of the fish works where there were pegmatite dykes.

At the end of this rather tiring day I was very pleased to hand the ignition key to Judy whose driving throughout the week was impeccable.

John Toller

Yet another day of Indian summer blessed our visit to the woodland idyll now known as Quarrywood (just north of Elgin). Shown on a 16^th century map as Quarrelwood, the bishops of Spynie obtained hunting arrows here (quarrels, in old Scots). It also became a source of local building sandstone, from small quarries worked by hand until the 1920s. The quarrymen found it more efficient to dress the rock in situ before removing slabs.

This locality played an important part in establishing the boundary between the Old and New Red Sandstones (ORS being the Devonian, New being the Permo-Triassic in this locality). Both look yellow here, and appear similar to the eye with no great unconformity visible, yet the whole of the Carboniferous is missing. Fossil remains (fish from the Devonian, and reptiles and their tracks from the Permo-Triassic) fixed the dates, however, and many of the originals remain on display in Elgin museum.

Our first stop were the Leggat and Oakbrae quarries behind the tearoom at Oakwood on the Inverness road. George Downie led us up the hill with his usual boundless enthusiasm, and shortly we were face to face with the Devonian; Cornstone on the bottom, grading into Rosebrae layers above. The Devonian here was laid down in arid conditions at fluctuating lake margins on the edge of the freshwater Lake Orcadie, and one theory is that fish may first have emerged from water here.

Then we came to Cutties Hillock quarry, to examine the Permo-Triassic . By then, this part of the world had moved into desert conditions in sub-tropical latitude north of the equator.

Some time before 1850, Judd of the Geological Survey sank a trial bore here below the Permo-Triassic which revealed fossil fish remains and further established the boundary.

Here we uncovered a slab in situ with doglike prints tracking across it. Another slab showed traces of what looked like tail drags. Both were very overgrown with moss – evidence of climatic change (– the biggest surprise being a tomato plant growing on the Cullen shoreline!). Gordonia, Geikia and Elginia Mirabilis fossil reptiles were once found here and can all be seen in the Elgin Museum. These reptiles existed before the dinosaurs evolved.

On a lighter note – a bit of local history – when I was a child, we were taken to the museum to view the shrunken head (a mummified Ecuadorian princess). This was taken off display in later years as being non pc – but insistent demand ("Lovely museum, but where’s the shrunken head!") has meant that it has gone back on display in a discreet corner.

At trip end, as we left Forres to return reluctantly to Bristol, (laden down with haggis’s from Macbeth the butcher, and fresh fish from Sandend) a huge escort of wild geese led us south, telling us that summer was at an end at last.

Friday 19th September

Friday 19 September and our last day in the field, with everyone still intact (no twisted ankles etc.) despite walking over lots of pebbly and rocky beaches. All except for Janet’s nose that is, pronounced not broken by our resident GP. It almost matched the colour of many of the rocks we were about to inspect!

The day was spent in appreciating the differences between the Burghead beds of the Trias and the Hopeman Sandstones of the Permian. We started at Burghead where, for the first time that week I wished I had a fleece with me instead of in the chalet. It’s called flinging caution to the wind which at the time was from the north-east as I recollect. However, a little later our luck held and I was back to a couple of T-shirts.

The Burghead beds comprise yellow sandstones, the quartz grains cemented with calcite. There were also discontinuous pebbly horizons which were lens shaped. This accorded well with the observation that there was a small channel whose infill was cross-bedded and which was cutting down through other beds which themselves were cross-bedded. It seemed there was a watercourse in this area during the Trias. The pebbles were transported when the current was stronger and able to cut down through previous deposits - laid down before the channel had changed its course - but which were dropped and deposited when it slackened, allowing finer grains to form ripples above them a process called scour and fill. The cross beds within the channel were oriented to the north-east suggesting that the source was in the south-west – from the Grampians, maybe? My notes from a previous life in this locality say that there was low sinuosity – a sign of braided streams.

Our next stop was Cummingston Town where we were introduced to the Permian Hopeman sandstones with their rounded quartz grains having a frosted or sand-blasted appearance. The rocks were strongly cemented, in contrast to the Burghead beds, and percolating groundwaters had moved around iron oxides and silica to achieve this end. A little further eastward we came to Hopeman and a locality where both sandstones were exposed. Could we discern the difference? Well, yes! Some sandstones had crossbeds which were much larger and this outcrop, at the edge of the beach, formed an upstanding ridge testifying to strong cementation. We also found the frosted sand grains, so these were the Hopeman beds. Then we found the east-west fault where everything changed and we were able to recognise the Burghead beds on the other side of this fault. It seems that the younger Burghead beds had been downthrown to the south bringing the two sandstones together at this point. The groundwaters had been active along this fault too, depositing iron oxide minerals and some galena was found here. In other places along the beach we found barytes and some fluorspar.

We moved just east of Hopeman to have our lunch and as a result one of our party had a huge release of stress. It seems there is a serious dearth of ice cream parlours in this area, but the situation was saved by an ice cream cornet just in the nick of time! Walking further east after eating and across a most beautiful beach, we reached another outcrop of Hopeman beds and if we wanted confirmation of our suspicion that the crossbeds had been caused by aeolian sand dunes here it was. They were much, much larger than anything we had yet seen ( 20 – 30 feet ) and one surface was so smooth and gently curved that any skateboard beginner would have been glad to practice here – a bit tricky at the end though! These are the deposits of barchan dunes those beautiful crescent shaped dunes we have all seen in pictures. The crossbedding direction seems to indicate a source to the south-east. Rounding a stack we came upon what looked like water escape phenomena with the beds upturned to the vertical but still cohesive, and overlain by what passes for ‘normal’ crossbeds completely undisturbed. Trapped water in the desert? It seems that this area was in the very near hinterland of the approaching Zechstein Sea which accounts for the presence of water, but there are two theories for the contortions:- weight of overburden causing the water to rise to the surface or the influx of water from time to time, expelling the air trapped in the sands of the dune field. Further on along the shore and over the hill there is a display of some of the quite numerous reptilian trace fossils – tracks of all sorts, shapes and sizes. This is the Lower Permian so no dinosaurs yet.

Our last stop of the day was in Lossiemouth behind the Beach Bar. Here we saw the Stotfield Chert originally a siliceous sandstone whose cement was replaced to calcium carbonate by those circulating groundwaters. Later still the calcium carbonate was replaced to silica again but this time by the variety known as chalcedony which is non-crystalline. It was an unusual looking rock which was very dense, hard and hackly like flint, but in shades of light grey (think of the greys on offer on your computer). Many of us know of calcrete, the fossil soil horizons based on calcium carbonate but this was a soil horizon based on silica. Both types can arise in semi-arid regions. Nearby was a small exposure of Lower Jurassic which kept us happily poking around to see what could be found – nothing unusual for the time as it happened but there is always the possibility and thrill of finding a gorgeous specimen.

It was back to our chalets then to get primped and powdered for our communal meal in a local hostelry to say an official and extremely grateful thank you to George and his wife Jean, whose funny and pithy comments were always a delight. A wonderful week!

Gloria Castle

Janice Theis provided the following article for our newsletter:-

Our Scottish trip in September visits the Lossiemouth sediments. There is an old mineshaft on the West beach, and an internet search turned up this fascinating first hand account of mining it.

Paul Condy, Cornish miner’s first hand account of working Lossie mineshaft in 1880. (www.gdicm.btinternet.co.uk/1882pagetwo.htm)

Tuesday: 14th February 1882
Lossiemouth: 'The Stotfield Mines.' These mines, (At the Hythe, which had been Stotfield's harbour) and all the fine machinery and buildings are still in the market, and the probability is that if a purchaser does not turn up soon, the plant and houses will be sold in lots on the spot, at an early date. (The shaft was in fact filled in, and houses later built on the the site of the buildings)

Statement by Paul Condy, Miner, Presently residing at Lossiemouth: "I am a native of Cornwall, and am forty one years of age. I was brought up from a boy as a lead miner. Been so employed for twenty eight years. I came to Lossiemouth about 1880. I was engaged working in the shaft there, which was then about seven fathoms deep. It had a cross cut, which had been driven seawards about three fathoms. This shaft is sunk in freestone, and the part sunk by Lobb, (Former Lessee. He was a young mining engineer who upon arriving at Stotfield, formed a company, and mined the site from 1877 -. A group of English miners tried
without success to find silver from the early summer of 1790 -, but they only spent a few months trying before they gave up, and boarding their 'trim-looking brigantine,' they sailed away as unceremoniously as they had arrived) is also through
freestone.

We drove seaward about thirty five fathoms, exclusive of Lobb's three fathoms. When we stopped operations an iron bar was sunk into the sand at the seaward end of the crosscut.

Between the shaft and the end of the crosscut a large quantity of lead ore was raised. After passing that part we came upon much softer ground, composed of clay, spar, limestone, and lead. The roof was solid rock, but there were several joints, or fissures, through which the sea water oozed at high water. Above the rock, there were nine feet of sand, and five to six feet of rock, the shaft having gladly risen in the working of it's length.

At high water we could not work, and then the sea water had to be pumped out before we could return. Our allowance for the first ten fathoms was £8 10s. For the next nine fathoms, which was through spar, mixed with freestone, £5 10s. We then came on hard flint rock and spar, for which we had £14 per fathom. We came into soft ground, and were working there when the company ran out of funds. After the hard rock we came upon a cavity of about fifteen inches, and the rod inserted showed it to be fifteen feet or more. It was not made by the hand of man. From my experience of mining, I consider that before making any crosscuts, the shaft should have been at least thirty fathoms deep.

My opinion is that there is a lode running north of the cross cut, and a vein north to south, westward at the Skerrycliffe Cottage. I am of the opinion that if properly tested, this mine would prove to be very profitable. If I had the money I would invest in it, and I would work for low wages, believing I would be remunerated. The elder Glossan (Experienced miner) is of the same opinion."

Lead mining at Stotfield was tried in 1773, and again in 1852, but the quantity of metal extracted never covered the costs.

1 undyed smoked Finnan haddock

4-6 medium potatoes

½ pt milk

1 oz butter

1 medium onion

NO SEASONING

(Quantities don’t have to be exact but if you can only find dyed fish don’t bother – open a tin of Baxter’s version instead).

Slice the potatoes thickly and boil without salt.

Chop the onion, place it in a pan with the milk and fish and bring to the boil, simmer for a couple of minutes, switch off and cover. After five minutes the fish should be cooked enough. Lift it out of the stock, remove bones and skin, and put the fish back in pan in chunks. Add the sliced potato and mash the lot roughly with a fork, depending how smooth you want it. Add the butter, and more milk if you like. Warm the soup up again and serve.

I sometimes use the stock to make a thick white sauce and serve it all together as a main course.