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Assynt Mountain Rescue Team
Assynt ( gd, Asainn or ) is a sparsely populated area in the south-west of Sutherland, lying north of Ullapool on the west coast of Scotland. Assynt is known for its landscape and its remarkable mountains, which have led to the area, along with neighbouring Coigach, being designated as the Assynt-Coigach National Scenic Area, one of 40 such areas in Scotland. The western part of Assynt has many distinctively shaped mountains, including Quinag, Canisp, Suilven and Ben More Assynt, that rise steeply from the surrounding "cnoc and lochan" scenery. These can often appear higher than their actual height would indicate due to their steep sides and the contrast with the moorland from which they rise. Many of the most distinctive peaks such as Suilven were formed during the last Ice Age, when they were left exposed above the ice sheet as nunataks, and they now remain as inselbergs of highly eroded Torridonian sandstone sitting on a bedrock of much older Lewisian gneiss. The Moine ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ainmean-Àite Na H-Alba
Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba (; "Gaelic Place-Names of Scotland") is the national advisory partnership for Gaelic place names in Scotland. Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba are based at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig on Skye. History Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba began as the Gaelic Names Liaison Committee, established in 2000 by the Ordnance Survey to improve consistency in Gaelic names on their mapping products. The committee expanded to become the Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba partnership in 2006. Functions Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba research and agree on place names, using local knowledge, historical sources and the principles of the Gaelic Orthographic Conventions. These names are used by local councils, roads authorities and the Ordnance Survey for signs and maps. AÀA are also producing a National Place-Names Database. This database was launched in August 2010, and contains over 3000 entries. Partnerships The partners are Argyll and Bute Council, Bòrd na Gàidhlig, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Highlands and Islan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inselberg
An inselberg or monadnock () is an isolated rock hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain. In Southern Africa a similar formation of granite is known as a koppie, an Afrikaans word ("little head") from the Dutch diminutive word ''kopje''. If the inselberg is dome-shaped and formed from granite or gneiss, it can also be called a bornhardt, though not all bornhardts are inselbergs. An inselberg results when a body of rock resistant to erosion, such as granite, occurring within a body of softer rocks, is exposed by differential erosion and lowering of the surrounding landscape. Etymology Inselberg The word ''inselberg'' is a loan word from German, and means "island mountain". The term was coined in 1900 by geologist Wilhelm Bornhardt (1864–1946) to describe the abundance of such features found in eastern Africa. At that time, the term applied only to arid landscape features. However, it has sin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Civil Parishes In Scotland
Civil parishes are small divisions used for statistical purposes and formerly for local government in Scotland. Civil parishes gained legal functions in 1845 which parochial boards were established to administer the poor law. Their local government functions were abolished in 1930 with their powers transferred to county or burgh councils. Since 1975, they have been superseded as the smallest unit of local administration in Scotland by community councils. History Civil parishes in Scotland can be dated from 1845, when parochial boards were established to administer the poor law. While they originally corresponded to the parishes of the Church of Scotland, the number and boundaries of parishes soon diverged. Where a parish contained a burgh, a separate ''landward'' parish was formed for the portion outside the town. Until 1891 many parishes lay in more than one county. In that year, under the terms of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, the boundaries of most of the civil p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
History Of Local Government In Scotland
The History of local government in Scotland is a complex tale of largely ancient and long established Scottish political units being replaced after the mid 20th century by a frequently changing series of different local government arrangements. Origins Anciently, the territory now referred to as ''Scotland'' belonged to a mixture of Brythionic groups (Picts and Cumbrians) and Angles. The Picts were based north of the Forth–Clyde line, traditionally in seven kingdoms: *Cat (the far north) * Ce (from Deeside to Speyside) * Circinn (southeast of the Cairngorms, roughly between the Isla and Dee) * Fib (the Fife peninsula) * Fotla (an expanded Atholl) *Fortriu (the areas to the north and west of the Grampians, including the Great Glen, and extending to the Atlantic coast, and as far north as the Dornoch Firth) *Fidach (unknown location). In later legends Albanactus, the legendary founder of Scotland, had seven sons, who each founded a kingdom. ''De Situ Albanie'' enumerates t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Old Norse
Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their Viking expansion, overseas settlements and chronologically coincides with the Viking Age, the Christianization of Scandinavia and the consolidation of Scandinavian kingdoms from about the 7th to the 15th centuries. The Proto-Norse language developed into Old Norse by the 8th century, and Old Norse began to develop into the modern North Germanic languages in the mid-to-late 14th century, ending the language phase known as Old Norse. These dates, however, are not absolute, since written Old Norse is found well into the 15th century. Old Norse was divided into three dialects: Old West Norse, ''Old West Norse'' or ''Old West Nordic'' (often referred to as ''Old Norse''), Old East Norse, ''Old East Norse'' or ''Old East Nordic'', and ''Ol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
North West Highlands Geopark
The North West Highlands Geopark is a geopark in the Scottish Highlands. Awarded UNESCO geopark status in 2004, it was Scotland's first geopark, featuring some of the oldest rocks in Europe, around 3,000 million years old. The park contains many notable geological features, such as the Moine Thrust Belt and Smoo Cave and covers an area of around . Geography The park is located in the extreme north-west of Scotland and includes parts of Sutherland and Wester Ross, including Cape Wrath. The area is one of the most sparsely inhabited in Europe, and is largely treeless. The park's eastern boundary generally follows the Moine Thrust Belt, otherwise the park is generally bounded by the north and west coasts of Scotland, with a few islands included in the park, such as the Summer Isles. Notable features The Moine Thrust Belt was formed between 430 and 500 million years ago. The belt includes Precambrian Moine rocks which have been pushed on top of younger Cambrian and Ordovician rock ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Inchnadamph
Inchnadamph is a hamlet in Assynt, Sutherland, Scotland. The name is an anglicisation of the Gaelic name Innis nan Damh meaning 'meadow of the stags'. Assynt is a remote area with a low population density. Inchnadamph contains a few houses, a lodge, a hotel and a historic old church, graveyard and mausoleum. History Bone Caves The 'Bone Caves' of Inchnadamph contain relics of Eurasian lynx, brown bear, Arctic fox, reindeer (dated to 47,000 BCE), the only evidence of polar bears so far found in Scotland, and human skeletons dated to the 3rd millennium BCE. Murray, W.H. (1977) ''The Companion Guide to the West Highlands of Scotland.'' London. Collins. Murray states the skeletons were dated to 6000 BC. The skeleton of a bear thought to be 11,000 years old or more was removed from the caves in 2008. The bones were found by cavers in 1995, deep in the ''Uamh an Claonaite'' system and have been examined by the National Museums Scotland to determine the age and species. It is presum ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uamh An Claonaite
Uamh an Claonaite (Scottish Gaelic: Cave of the sloping rock) is the longest cave in Scotland. It consists of a series of dry passages and a series of at least six sumps which have been dived over the years. The attempt by members of the Grampian Speleological Group The Grampian Speleological Group is the oldest caving club in Scotland, having been founded in 1961. It is also the largest, with members exploring caves across Britain and the world. See also *Caving in the United Kingdom References External ... to excavate a nearby sinkhole, Rana Hole, and connect into the final chambers from above achieved its aim in December 2007. The length of the cave is and the vertical range is . References External links * http://www.wirralcavinggroup.uk.eu.org/trips/uac.html * http://www.sat.dundee.ac.uk/arb/scotland/assynt.html * http://www.darkanddeep.co.uk/caving_scotland.asp Caves of Scotland Limestone caves Wild caves Protected areas of Highland (council area) Und ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Karst
Karst is a topography formed from the dissolution of soluble rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and gypsum. It is characterized by underground drainage systems with sinkholes and caves. It has also been documented for more weathering-resistant rocks, such as quartzite, given the right conditions. Subterranean drainage may limit surface water, with few to no rivers or lakes. However, in regions where the dissolved bedrock is covered (perhaps by debris) or confined by one or more superimposed non-soluble rock strata, distinctive karst features may occur only at subsurface levels and can be totally missing above ground. The study of ''paleokarst'' (buried karst in the stratigraphic column) is important in petroleum geology because as much as 50% of the world's hydrocarbon reserves are hosted in carbonate rock, and much of this is found in porous karst systems. Etymology The English word ''karst'' was borrowed from German in the late 19th century, which entered German much earlier ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Knockan Crag
Knockan Crag ( gd, Creag a' Chnocain, "crag of the small hill")The Story of Knockan Crag National Nature Reserve. p. ii. lies within the North West Highlands Geopark in the Assynt region of Scotland north of Ullapool. During the nineteenth century Knockan Crag became the subject of much debate when geologists noted that the Moine schists at the top of the crag appeared to be older than the Cambrian and Ordovician rocks such as Durness limestone lower down. Disagreements over the processes that could have caused this to occur were referred to at the time as the " Highlands Controversy". The argument was primarily between Roderick Murchison and Archibald Geikie on the one hand and James Nicol and Charles Lapworth on the other. Murchison and Geikie believed the sequence was wrong and that the Moine schists must be the younger rocks. The controversy was finally resolved by the work of Ben Peach and John Horne whose 1907 paper on the subject remains a classic text. Peach and Horne de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moine Thrust Belt
The Moine Thrust Belt or Moine Thrust Zone is a linear tectonic feature in the Scottish Highlands which runs from Loch Eriboll on the north coast south-west to the Sleat peninsula on the Isle of Skye. The thrust belt consists of a series of thrust faults that branch off the Moine Thrust itself. Topographically, the belt marks a change from rugged, terraced mountains with steep sides sculptured from weathered igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks in the west to an extensive landscape of rolling hills over a metamorphic rock base to the east. Mountains within the belt display complexly folded and faulted layers and the width of the main part of the zone varies up to , although it is significantly wider on Skye. Discovery The presence of metamorphic gneisses and schists lying apparently stratigraphically above sedimentary rocks of lower Paleozoic age in the Northwest Highlands had been known since the early 19th century, convincing Roderick Murchison that the change was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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