West Lomond is the highest point in the county of Fife,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

and the highest peak in the

Lomond Hills The Lomond Hills (meaning either beacon hills or bare hills), also known outside the locality as the Paps of Fife, are a range of hills in central Scotland. They lie in western central Fife and Perth and Kinross, Scotland. At West Lomond is the ...

. Its cone-shaped summit, which is the remains of a

volcanic plug A volcanic plug, also called a volcanic neck or lava neck, is a volcanic object created when magma hardens within a vent on an active volcano. When present, a plug can cause an extreme build-up of high gas pressure if rising volatile-charged ...

, rises above an

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. The terms ''scarp'' and ''scarp face'' are often used interchangeably with ''esc ...

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a geologic period and system of the Paleozoic that spans 60 million years from the end of the Devonian Period million years ago ( Mya), to the beginning of the Permian Period, million years ago. The name ''Carbonif ...

sandstone Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks. Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...

and

limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms wh ...

layers, capped with a quartz-microgabbro sill. The conspicuous peaks of West Lomond, and its neighbour East Lomond, are visible for many miles around, which explains one suggested origin of their name, the 'Lomond' or 'beacon' hills. On the summit are the remains of an

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age ( Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age ( Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostl ...

hill fort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Rom ...

. West Lomond is usually climbed from Craigmead car park on the Falkland-Leslie road which is at a height of almost 300 metres. Another route of ascent leaves from the Bunnet Stane and climbs diagonally up the steep north slopes of the escarpment to a gap in the cliffs, gaining the

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; ), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. Often one or more sides h ...

a short distance from the summit cone. This route is steeper and begins at a much lower altitude than the Craigmead car park.

Geodesy

Until 1891 West Lomond was the

meridian Meridian or a meridian line (from Latin ''meridies'' via Old French ''meridiane'', meaning “midday”) may refer to Science * Meridian (astronomy), imaginary circle in a plane perpendicular to the planes of the celestial equator and horizon * ...

of the 6 inch and 1:2500 Ordnance Survey maps of Kinross and Fife. After that the maps of Kinross and Fife were drawn according to the meridian of The Buck in Aberdeenshire.

References

External links

Scottish National Heritage

Walk Scotland

School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh
{{coord, 56.24511, N, 3.29733, W, region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(NO197066), display=title Marilyns of Scotland Hills of Fife Highest points of historic Scottish counties