XVIII.—The Geology of the Highland Border: Stonehaven to Arran

Abstract

(a) Scope of Paper.—The distinction between Highlands and Lowlands is a most striking feature of the topography of Scotland and has for long played an important part in the political, economic and social life of the country. Although the dividing line between the two regions, in a purely geographical sense, is ill-defined in some districts, on the whole it coincides fairly closely with a powerful geological dislocation which can be traced across Scotland from Stonehaven to Arran (fig. 1), a distance of 160 miles. This dislocation has for long been termed the Highland Boundary Fault. On detailed study it is found to be only one of several faults making up a complex fracture-zone, one of the most important in the British Isles, within which movements on a considerable scale have taken place from Ordovician to Carboniferous times.