Scotland's Earth Heritage and Landscape
| Foundations of Landscape | A brief geological history of Scotland | Our Earth heritage under threat | Protecting our Earth Heritage | Useful links, publications and contacts |
Scotland’s rocks, fossils, landforms and soils
Our Earth heritage under threat
- Introduction
- Rocks
- Glacial deposits
- Rivers and Coasts
- Fossils (including Scottish Fossil code)
- Environmental archives
- Soils
Introduction
Scotland’s Earth heritage, created over the last 3 billion years, provides a source of basic raw materials: coal for fuel; sand for glass; sand and gravel for aggregate; granite for concrete; sandstone for building; limestone for cement; and flagstone for paving (Mineral resources and extraction). The soil supports crops and forestry. Water is vital for human life.
Our Earth heritage is used by scientists to research the origins of the land, identify the location of natural resources, explain the processes that continue to shape the landscape and understand the evolution of life itself.
Our Earth heritage also provides a basis for recreation: beaches for walking and swimming; rivers and lochs for fishing and boating; mountains, coasts and cliffs for walking and climbing; and fossils and minerals for those who enjoy collecting. The diversity and beauty of the Scottish landscape arise from its geological foundations and are a major attraction for visitors worldwide.
Places to visit: Knockan Crag ; National Nature Reserves and National Parks ; Classic geological sites
Rocks - hard but vulnerable
Rocky uplands, coastal and river cliffs, old and new quarries, road cuts, pits and mines are excellent places to study rocks. Exposures in these settings can reveal much about the geology of an area. Fossils within the rock can help tell us how old the rocks are and provide links to other similar fossil-bearing strata elsewhere, nationally or internationally.
Quarries, as well as representing excellent opportunities for examining and collecting rocks, fossils and minerals, are also obvious places for waste disposal. Often a compromise can be reached, whereby an old quarry can be partially infilled, but leaving particular important rock faces unburied and therefore available for students to study.
Coastal cliffs and shore areas represent some of the best opportunities to study geology. However, constant attack by the sea can result in the retreat of stretches of the coastline. Sometimes, this erosion needs to be controlled, but not necessarily by masses of unsightly and expensive concrete. In such circumstances, carefully positioned simple rock mounds, which reduce wave energy, can prevent major and rapid retreat yet allow the gentle erosion needed to maintain coastal rock exposure.
Rocks in upland areas are rarely affected by industrial and residential development, but dense conifer plantations can obscure their exposure and make access to important exposures difficult. Forethought, consultation and careful planning can help avoid such problems.
Scottish Natural Heritage can provide advice on all aspects of conservation of Scotland’s geological heritage. We can be contacted through our Area Offices or our Earth Science Group, in SNH Advisory Services, Anderson Place, Edinburgh
Here is a list of some of our currently available publications containing further information.
Glacial Deposits - landscape sculpture
Many of Scotland’s landforms are relict features formed by processes, such as glaciation, that are no longer active today. These landforms include moraines, eskers and drumlins which often strongly influence the local landscape character. If damaged or destroyed by sand and gravel extraction, building or infrastructure development, such landscape ‘sculptures’ are lost forever. Commercial afforestation can also effectively conceal their presence.
Scottish Natural Heritage provides advice on conservation of Scotlands relict landforms, through our Area Offices and our Earth Science Group, in SNH Advisory Services, Anderson Place, Edinburgh
More information about glaciers in Scotland, can be found on the scottishgeology.com website
Further reading:
Mineral Extraction in Quaternary Landforms and Deposits. Information and
Advisory Note, 40. SNH
Restoration and Management of Mineral Extraction Sites in Quaternary Landforms
and Deposits. Information and Advisory Note, 41. SNH
Other Earth Science publications
Rivers and Coasts - dynamic landscapes
Rivers and coasts are dynamic environments continually changing in response to variations in weather, land-use and the supply of sediment. This capacity to change, unpredictably, is one of their most fascinating features. However, it predisposes them to human interference from schemes designed to restrict and control their natural dynamism, which can destroy habitat and reduce landscape value.
Scottish Natural Heritage is working towards the sustainable management of dynamic landscapes and can provide advice on their management and conservation.
Publications resulting from some of our recent research and survey work into dynamic systems, including work on Coastal Cells, ‘Focus on Firths’ and river processes, are listed here and are available from SNH Publications, Battleby, Redgorton, Perth, PH1 3EW.
Further general information about Scotlands Coasts and Machair can also be found in SNHs Scotland’s Living Landscape series titles Coasts and Machair.
Fossils - endangered past species
Fossils provide an invaluable insight into past lives and environments, and fossil collecting is a hobby enjoyed by many. However, over-collecting and thoughtlessness by some collectors can, at certain vulnerable sites, threaten the destruction of an irreplaceable resource.
Scottish Natural Heritage promotes responsible fossil collecting and can provide advise on management and conservation of fossil sites.
For more information on fossils in Scotland including Classic Sites for fossils, and famous fossil collectors, visit the scottishgeology.com website. Find out more information on fossil collecting in Scotland.
Scottish Fossil Code
The Scottish Fossil Code is avaiable at www.snh.org.uk/fossilcode/
Environmental archives – buried ancient pollen
The history of landscape evolution since the end of the last ice age is preserved in layers of sediment within peat bogs and on loch floors. Pollen, plant fragments and insect remains preserved in these ‘archives’ have revealed much information about environmental change, climate history and vegetation growth. The impact of human activity on the landscape through woodland clearance, soil erosion and acidification of water bodies are also recorded. Such archives are vulnerable to land improvement changes, especially drainage of bogs and commercial peat extraction.
Scottish Natural Heritage can provide advice on the management and conservation of Scotlands ‘environmental archives’. We can be contacted through our Area Offices or our Earth Science Group, in SNH Advisory Services, Anderson Place, Edinburgh
Soils and the living landscape
Soil is a vital part of the natural environment, which influences the distribution of natural plants and species, controls flow of water and pollutants and acts both as a source and sink for oxygen and green house gases. It is also a key part of our cultural heritage through modification to landscape and soil brought about by past and current human activities, including agriculture, forestry, and build heritage.
Soil is not just the dark organic layer visible at the surface, but reaches down to the parental material (bedrock and glacial drift in Scotland). This soil is a non-renewable natural resource which can be lost through development or degraded through unsustainable land use or practices, resulting, for example, in erosion or pollution.
The many different soils in Scotland can be grouped into four major soil types.
- Peats which form under high rainfall or permanently waterlogged conditions, where vegetation slowly decays and accumulates at the surface.
- Gley soils are also poorly drained but without accumulation of organic matter.
- Brown forest soils are well drained and are often deep fertile soils favourable for agriculture.
- Podzols develop on acid and freely drained material where nutrients can be leached out making it less suitable for agricultural use.
SNH is currently involved in work to assess the conservation value of soil in Scotland and work related to the development of a soil protection strategy both at national and European level. Information on current activities by SNH & the Soils Lead Co-ordination Network can be found on the Soils page of the JNCC website.
More background information on soils in Scotland can be found in the “soils” and “boglands” booklets (SNH publications) or by consulting the MLURI web page on “introduction to soil”