Scotland
Harnessing recent developments in computer technology, the latest New Naturalist volume uses the most up-to-date and accurate maps, diagrams and photographs to analyse the diverse landscapes of Scotland.Most people share an enthusiasm for beautiful and breathtaking scenery, explored variously through the physical challenge of climbing to the top of the tallest mountains or the joy of viewing the work of a painter; but while easy to admire from a distance, such landscapes are usually difficult to explain in words.Peter Friend highlights the many famous and much loved natural landscapes of Scotland, ranging from the rolling, agricultural lowlands of the east to the wild and rugged mountains of the west, from the whitewashed villages of Galloway to the traditional fishing ports of the east. He provides detailed explanations for the wide variety of natural events and processes that have caused such an exciting range of surroundings.Setting apart the topography that has resulted from natural rather than man-made occurrences, Friend focuses on each region individually, from the windswept islands that fringe the Atlantic to the sheltered straths of Perthshire, and explains the history and development of their land structures through detailed descriptions and colourful diagrams.Illustrated with beautifully detailed photographs throughout, Scotland comprehensively explores the formation of these wonderful landscapes that are so universally admired.On some devices, certain links to a figure (or references to a page) before or after or very close to the link itself may not work every time. Thanks for your patience. We hope you enjoy the ebook editions of the Collins New Naturalists series.
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EDITORS
SARAH A. CORBET, ScD PROF. RICHARD WEST, ScD, FRS, FGS DAVID STREETER, MBE, FIBiol JIM FLEGG, OBE, FIHort PROF. JONATHAN SILVERTOWN
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The aim of this series is to interest the general
reader in the wildlife of Britain by recapturing the enquiring spirit of the old naturalists. The editors believe that the natural pride of the British public in the native flora and fauna, to which must be added concern for their conservation, is best fostered by maintaining a high standard of accuracy combined with clarity of exposition in presenting the results of modern scientific research.
THE NEW NATURALIST LIBRARY
SCOTLAND
Looking at the Natural Landscapes
PETER FRIEND
with LEAH JACKSON-BLAKE and JAMES SAMPLE
Contents
Editorsâ Preface
Authorsâ Foreword and Acknowledgements
CHAPTER 1 - Looking at Scotlandâs Landscapes
CHAPTER 2 - Surface Modifications
CHAPTER 3 - Movements of the Earth from Within
CHAPTER 4 - Episodes in the Bedrock History of Scotland
CHAPTER 5 - Later Surface Modifications
CHAPTER 6 - Area 1: Galloway
CHAPTER 7 - Area 2: Southern Borders
CHAPTER 8 - Area 3: Jura to Arran
CHAPTER 9 - Area 4: Glasgow
CHAPTER 10 - Area 5: Edinburgh
CHAPTER 11 - Area 6: Mull
CHAPTER 12 - Area 7: Rannoch
CHAPTER 13 - Area 8: Dundee
CHAPTER 14 - Area 9: Uists and Barra
CHAPTER 15 - Area 10: Skye
CHAPTER 16 - Area 11: Affric
CHAPTER 17 - Area 12: Cairngorm
CHAPTER 18 - Area 13: Aberdeen
CHAPTER 19 - Area 14: Lewis and Harris
CHAPTER 20 - Area 15: Cape Wrath
CHAPTER 21 - Area 16: Inverness
CHAPTER 22 - Area 17: Caithness
CHAPTER 23 - Area 18: Orkney
CHAPTER 24 - Area 19: Shetland
CHAPTER 25 - Overview
Further Reading
List of Searchable Terms
The New Naturalist Library
Copyright
Editorsâ Preface
IN HIS EARLIER NEW NATURALIST VOLUME on the natural landscapes of Southern England, the author, Peter Friend, presented a new vision of landscape, providing a geological background for our understanding of the distribution and variation of flora and fauna in the lowland parts of Britain.
A division of Britain into lowland and highland regions has often been made in descriptions of our flora and fauna, for example by Arthur Tansley in his classic book on Types of British Vegetation (1911). Now Peter Friend has turned his attention to Scotland, the major highland part of Britain. In contrast to the sedimentary origin of the âsoftâ rocks of the lowlands, the âhardâ rocks of Scotland arise from a series of events in the Earthâs crust dating back to the earliest years of the planet, which were far less understood in the days when Dudley Stampâs New Naturalist volume on Britainâs Structure and Scenery was published in 1946. The resulting structures, now much better understood, underlie Scotlandâs great variations in rock type and altitudes. Allied to this is the effect of the northern climate on the distribution of plants and animals, making the Highlands an area of particular interest from the biogeographical point of view, a mountainous region in the far west of Europe, adjacent to the Atlantic.
The illustrations featured in this book take full account of the possibilities of aerial and satellite photography in analysing topography, showing the relation between the geology, the soils, and the directions and angles of sloping features â all factors which must affect flora and fauna. The arrangement into areas, each with a similar treatment and analysis of the landscape, makes the subject very accessible to those interested in the geology or visiting the areas, and to those studying the fauna and flora and wishing to understand the physical background of the natural history. This book is a welcome addition to the New Naturalist Library, and will strengthen our understanding of the important and basic relationships between geology and natural history.
Authorsâ Foreword and Acknowledgements
THE PLEASURE OF ENJOYING A LANDSCAPE is greatly increased and deepened by developing some feeling for the events in the history of the Earth that may have caused it. This approach was followed in 2008, when Southern England, by Peter Friend, appeared as New Naturalist 108. The object was to provide a systematic general review of the landscapes visible in the countryside extending from Landâs End in the southwest to East Anglia in the east. Peter has now been joined by two others, Leah Jackson-Blake and James Sample, to apply a similar approach to Scotland.
Peter and his two brothers were brought up in Edinburgh, in the Midland Valley of Scotland, moving with the family for a few years to Peebles in the Southern Uplands, during part of the Second World War. Many of the family activities involved visits to the countryside, and the pleasures and interests of these visits have continued into new generations of the family. The other two authors of this book have recently moved from southern England, where the book has been written, and now enjoy the landscapes of northern Scotland where they live and work.
Landscapes are easy to look at, given reasonable weather conditions, but difficult to describe in words. But developments in computer technology now offer many ways of analysing landscapes using different mapping methods, and these, along with diagrams and photos, form the framework of this book. Working on this imagery has been the main contribution of a succession of enthusiastic helpers. Lucinda Edes, Emilie Galley and Liesbeth Renders, and the second and third authors of this book, have all contributed great skill and enthusiastic innovation to this work, and made the project enjoyable as well as successful.
