Monday, December 04, 2006

Arch #1



There are few sights more satisfying on a sea kayaking trip than an arch. I especially like ones you can paddle through. You really feel you are interacting with environment when you are under an arch. This one just invited us through. I think part of the attraction is that, just like us, an arch is mortal and will not be there forever.

To my mind nothing defines the interface between land and sea so well as an arch.

This magnificent arch is at the foot of Bloodstone hill on the island of Rum. Green agates are found in this rock. They contain little tiny red flecks of iron, and it is these that give the stone and the mountain its name.

The geology here is very complex, Bloodstone Hill lies at the boundary of granite and Torridonian sandstone. It is also covered with sedimentary conglomerate rocks containing igneous rocks from the eruption which formed the Cuillin of Rum. These sedimentary rocks are then covered with lava flows that are younger than the Rum eruption and which probably came from the later Mull eruption to the south.



If you look carefully at the top slopes of Bloodstone Hill, you can see where these lavas have flowed over the top of the hill and started to run down ancient river valleys. The lava solidified before it got to the sea and has left steep escarpments.

5 comments:

  1. I like it! What are they asking and do they ship? Actually, I have no place to put it... I'll get back to you on it, how's that? ;-)

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  2. Hi Douglas is that arch on the SW of Mull?
    Alan

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  3. Michael, there are shipping difficulties but we have stacks of arches over here! You must come.

    Alan, that's a really good suggestion, but it's not Mull..... :o)

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  4. Hello Douglas could you tell us where the arches are please? I liked your Hebrides photos.
    Alan

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  5. Hello Alan, arch locations are now identified! Please do not ask me about camp site locations though. They are the bits of a sea kayaker's environment that are most easily damaged by ourselves. I would not like to put a lot of extra pressure on the few sites I have discovered. There are plenty out there and it is so satisfying when you discover a good one.

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