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North Berwick & East Lothian |
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The ESSENTIAL GUIDE for visitors |
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Geology in and around North Berwick |
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GEOLOGY by David McAdam |
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The two striking
landscape features of North Berwick, The Law and the Bass Rock,
give clues to the volcanic origin of this part of East Lothian.
They are each the exhumed core of a volcano, made of hard igneous
rock which cooled inside the volcano. Later erosion wore away
the softer surrounding rocks and left the harder core rock standing
proud. The lavas and ashes from these volcanoes form the rocks
around the harbour and along the shores to east and west. Three
Basaltic lavas form the reefs at the harbour. |
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These harder
volcanic rocks form a band stretching south to the Garleton Hills,
and are the reason why the North Berwick area protrudes north
into the Firth of Forth. The volcanic rocks formed some 340 million
years ago in what geologists know as the early Carboniferous
period. Since then the rocks of Scotland have been subject to
episodes of mounting building followed by erosion. As a result
the rocks we see today are tilted and cut by faults. At various
times during the last 2 million years East Lothian was covered
by an ice sheet which flowed west to east across the area. |
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This covered
the rocks with glacial till, stiff clay with stones and boulders,
and left a west-east grain across the landscape, as seen in the
ridge extending east from The Law. Since the end of glaciation,
some 15 thousand years ago, the sea-level relative to the land
has fluctuated. For a long period around 5000 years ago, sea-level
was about 8 metres higher than present. This produced a raised
beach of sands and gravels which underlie the flat part of North
Berwick below about 8 metres, backed by steep slopes which were
the former sea cliffs. Most of the West Links golf course lies
on this raised beach with associated blown sand dunes, but only
the first and last holes of the East Links (Glen) golf course. |
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Geology in and around North Berwick |
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North Berwick & East Lothian |
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