Edinburgh Rock: The Geology of Lothian

by Euan N.K. Clarkson, Brian Upton

Looking at Edinburgh Castle it is easily appreciated that it embodies a thousand yearís worth of history. By investigation of soils and erosional features we can extend Edinburghís history back to the end of the ice-ages and the movements of glaciers across the region can also be discerned. However, before the ice-ages we are confronted with a vast time gap of around three hundred million years. For this interval we can only surmise what local conditions in and around Edinburgh were like. It is when we investigate the bed-rocks that it is possible to take the story back further. Edinburghís rocks, formed between 300 and 450 million years ago, afford startling perspectives of the extraordinarily different environments of those remote times. The sandstones with which much of the city is built, were washed down in rivers meandering through a tropical landscape. Coals from the seams of the Midlothian coal-field are fossil relicts of extensive rain-forests that thrived in steamy co

256 pages, Hardcover

First published June 29, 2006

Reviews

[Otherwyrld · Rating 3 out of 5]

The preface of this aims to present "an overall synthesis [of the geology of Edinburgh] aimed at the discerning public", in which case I'm clearly not that discerning as I found this to be dry and heavy going at times. The first half is a particular struggle as the authors go into sometimes minute details of the early geology of the Edinburgh area, and by early I mean 500 million to 350 million years ago. There's a bit of a gap (of 300 million years!) where any local rocks have been eroded away so have left few traces, then we get to "recent" history, which is where my major interest lies. Unfortunately the ice ages are only covered in the final chapter which left me wanting a lot more

For all the difficulties I had with this book, it was well presented and as I said, very thorough in it's approach. A tiny bit of spoon-feeding, such as a glossary, would have helped a lot.