Isle of Skye I

Having finally arrived in the much anticipated Isle of Skye, we began our first day with high expectations (which, spoiler alert, were certainly met). The weather was overcast and foggy, lending an eery beauty to our surroundings. We drove north along the eastern coast, from our bright yellow hostel in Portree, to Kilt Rock, a fantastic exposure of Jurassic sediments topped with columnar dolerite (compositionally equivalent to basalt and gabbro, but with a grain size intermediate between the two). These columns give a "pleated" appearance to the rock (like a kilt), hence its name.

View of Kilt Rock (once the fog finally cleared)


Sketch of Kilt Rock (Note Credit: Caroline Lee, Photo Credit: Charly Bank)


Another short drive along the coast took us to spectacular sauropod footprints, some expressed as depressions in the shale, and others preserved as casts. The footprints we saw, large as they were, may have been smaller than the sauropod's actual feet, due to sediments filling part of the print left in the shale.
 
Water-filled sauropod footprint

Sauropod footprints heading approximately northwest

A short walk led us to more columnar dolerite underlying the nearby Duntulm Castle (the ruined seat of Clan MacDonald of Sleat), this time with regularly spaced darker mafic bands, believed (according to Charly Bank) to be the expression of additional melt from the release of heat as lava flows cooled.



Duntulm Castle (atop columnar basalt)

Close-up of darker, evenly spaced bands on columnar basalt

We finished the field portion of the day with an incredibly atmospheric hike along the Quiraing, a series of peaks in northern Skye, an area highly prone to landslides (we made it through however, although we spent a fair bit of time hunting for a lost student *cough* Ivanno, although he starred in a pretty amazing photo; see below).
View of landscape from the start of the Quiraing trail

Looming spires of rock in the fog along the Quiraing

Ivano with his mighty hammer (just prior to getting very lost)



We rounded off the day with another group meal: a large pot of (surprisingly spicy) chili and basmati rice (cooked by yours truly).

All in all, this was a fantastic day in terms of geology and pure enjoyment, and was one of my favourite days so far.

- Thea Myrskog

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