Hutton’s Section
When, in 1787, James Hutton, the Edinburgh scientist later to be hailed the founder of modern geology, came to Arran, the science of geology was in its infancy. Many problems had still to be solved, many new ideas formulated. So Arran’s varied geology provided fertile ground for Hutton’s active mind.
Still very much associated with him is the shore locality at North Newton which bears his name. Here, Hutton observed the angular discordance between two different types of strata now called an unconformity. He was able to deduce that it must have taken several geological processes over a very long period of time to give such a structure in the rocks. These were radical and even heretical opinions for his time.
The granite hills of north Arran and the way they pushed up through the sedimentary strata also provided a wealth of new information for Hutton. The splendid section through the north of the island, drawn by his artist friend, John Clerk of Eldin, was intended for his epic work, Theory of the Earth.