The scottishgeology.com website has been the mainstay of public engagement in Scotland’s geology for over 20 years. It was originally established to host the 3rd Scottish Geology Week in 2001 (you can read about the developments from that period in the excellent archive of the Earth Heritage magazine).

Extract from Earth Heritage, volume 18, reporting on a ‘New gateway to Scottish Geology’

The site rapidly developed as a gateway to all things geological in Scotland, with information about famous geologists, an introduction to the geology of different regions and links to organisations and publications.

An enthusiastic team, often on a volunteer basis, continued to maintain the website through the 2000s, as the Scottish Geology Week, later the Scottish Geology Festival, waned due to lack of funding and support. Key contributors, such as Diane Mitchell at National Museums of Scotland, moved on.

By 2010, the Festival working group were in discussion with other partners, leading to the launch in 2011 of the Scottish Geodiversity Forum, which took on the management of scottishgeology.com. A complete revamp of the site went live in March 2012, moving to a responsive design with WordPress to simplify ongoing management and updating.

Projects organised by the Forum and partners added new content, including an entirely new section on Scotland’s fossils contributed by science writer and poet Lara Reid on a voluntary basis in 2014. The website hosted the Hugh Miller Writing Competitions in 2016, 2018 and 2020. In 2017, the Forum’s 51 Best Places to see Scotland’s Geology project added substantial new content that captured the imagination of people around the world and greatly increased traffic to the site (so much so that our bit of the internet broke on launch day). Throughout this period Angus Miller, the Chair of the Forum, was often the sole webmaster, battling to keep the site live and reasonably up-to-date through various hiccups.

With the launch of the Scottish Geology Trust in 2020, management of the site passed to the Trust, and the Comms team were keen to utilise the existing quality content from scottishgeology.com. After some consideration, it was decided to integrate this content into the new, professionally designed, SGT website in a new ‘geology’ section. This launched in May 2023, supported by a huge amount of behind-the-scenes updating and improving by web designer Gordon Lang.

So, farewell, after 22 years, of a mainstay of communication about and promotion of Scotland’s geology. But don’t grieve, because the domain name stays with the Scottish Geology Trust, and technical wizardry by Gordon means that all pages of the old site are mapped to the new content in www.scottishgeologytrust.org/geology/.

Scottishgeology.com – the home of geology lives on!

Two geological sites in Scotland have been recognised by the International Union of Geological Sciences in a list of the First 100 Geological Heritage Sites. These are sites of significant international scientific relevance, making a substantial contribution to the development of geological sciences.

The two Scottish sites are Siccar Point, near Dunbar and the Moine Thrust Zone in the North West Highlands.

Siccar Point is a spectacular rocky promontory on the coast of the Scottish Borders, 10 miles south-east of Dunbar. It is commonly recognised as the most important geological site in the world. Siccar Point was first described in 1788 by James Hutton and his friends as an example of an angular unconformity – a junction between two sets of rocks of different ages. Hutton’s descriptions of these rocks revolutionised science – providing a first glimpse of “deep time” and the great cycles in earth history. Siccar Point is widely regarded now as one of birthplaces of the science of geology and Hutton as the science’s father-figure. Although the site is little known locally, it has inspired scientists and students for centuries – and fundamentally changed the way we see the Earth.

The Moine Thrust Zone is a major tract of ancient tectonic faulting where rocks have been moved more than 100 km sideways. It can be traced from Cape Wrath, on Scotland’s north coast south to the Isle of Skye, and constitutes not only the centrepiece to the NW Highlands UNESCO Geopark but also its landscapes are the highlight of the NorthCoast 500 tourist trail. Recognised in the 19th century, the Moine Thrust Zone revolutionised the ways geologists developed tectonic understanding of ancient and modern mountain ranges around the world.

Prof Robert Holdsworth (Chair of the Scottish Geology Trust) said: “There is a very strong argument that says that the science of geology came into being from observations first made in Scotland. These are places where humankind made gigantic conceptual leaps forwards in our understanding of Earth processes and the passage of geological time. Such extraordinary and visually captivating localities are an inspiration to current and future geoscientists worldwide and are the centrepiece of what makes the rocks of Scotland so special.”

Professor Iain Stewart (UNESCO Chair in Geoscience & Society, Scottish geologist & BBC documentary maker) said: “Siccar Point is a sacred pilgrimage place for geologists the world over – an apparently unassuming rocky foreshore in which the full enormity of geological time is laid out in the tilted strata of the planet’s natural convulsions. The Moine Thrust Zone gave geologists a new way of seeing how mountains formed – slices of ancient strata, stacked up on top of each other, creating Himalayas-scale peaks that have been worn down to their roots.”

The Scottish Geology Trust welcomes the inclusion of two important sites in the First 100 Geological Heritage Sites; we are working to promote these sites and Scottish geology, and to highlight the opportunities for internationally recognised sites to contribute to local economies. The Trust works to raise awareness of UNESCO Global Geoparks in Scotland, and their potential contribution to achieving Scottish Government outcomes for National Parks, Regional Land Use Partnerships and green jobs.

The Scottish Geology Trust online seminar Promoting Scotland’s Geology – the First 100 Geological Heritage Sites takes place on Friday 28 October, 4pm. All welcome!

The Scottish geological community have written to Alex Paterson, Chief Executive of Historic Environment Scotland, suggesting that the temporary fence closing off the Radical Road in Holyrood Park in Edinburgh should be moved to allow access to Hutton’s Section, Edinburgh’s most important geological site. James Hutton is known internationally as the founder of modern geology, and enthusiasts from across the UK and around the world come to Edinburgh to visit sites associated with James Hutton. This interest is likely to increase as we approach the tercentenary of Hutton’s birth in 2026. In addition the Park is used routinely for student field trips from the Universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and many other institutions.

Following rockfall from Salisbury Crags in 2018, the Radical Road along the base of the crags has been closed. It is likely to remain closed for some time, as Historic Environment Scotland assess options for allowing safe access to this historic path. However, Hutton’s Section is close to the edge of this restricted area, on a section of Salisbury Crags that has been assessed as having a lower risk of rockfall. The letter from various geological organisations and interested individuals suggests that the temporary fence could be re-located to the north end of Hutton’s Section, so that there is unrestricted access to Hutton’s Section.

Hutton’s Section, located in the low cliff in the centre of the photo, is currently inaccessible, behind a temporary fence installed by Historic Environment Scotland to prevent access to the Radical Road. Photo: Angus Miller.