The geology of Arran

By G.W. Tyrell

Bibliographic reference: Tyrell, G.W. 1928. The geology of Arran. Memoirs of the Geological Survey, Scotland. Edinburgh H.M.S.O.

Department of Scientific and Industrial Research

Memoirs of the Geological Survey, Scotland

The geology of Arran by G. W. Tyrrell, A.R.C.Sc., Ph.D. Lecturer in Geology in the University of Glasgow

Edinburgh: Printed Under The Authority Of His Majesty's Stationery Office 1928

Cover [supplied]

Title page

(Plate 1) View of 1000-Foot Platform around Goatfell from Brodick Bay. Frontispiece.

Price 6d. 6d. Net

62–298.

Preface

The six-inch survey of Arran was begun in 1872 by Sir A. Geikie, who mapped a narrow belt along the east coast, and was resumed in 1892 by Mr. W. Gunn, who, under the supervision of Dr. B. N. Peach, completed the detailed examination of the island. To Mr. Gunn's careful and accurate field-work, as embodied in Sheets 21 and 13 (1901 and 1902) of the One-inch Geological Map of Scotland and in the special One-inch Geological Map of Arran, issued in 1910, every student of the geology of this classic area owes a deep debt of gratitude. The geological description of Sheet 21 was published in 1903 ('Geology of North Arran, South Bute, and the Cumbraes, with parts of Ayrshire and Kintyre'), and Mr. Gunn's account of the northern two-thirds of the island, included in this Memoir, is a storehouse of accurate observation and careful deduction. A valuable chapter on the petrography of the Tertiary igneous rocks was contributed to the Memoir by Dr. A. Harker.

The projected Explanation of Sheet 13 was never completed, owing to Mr. Gunn's death in 1902. Since then, geological literature has been enriched by the publication of detailed studies of two other important Tertiary volcanic centres in Scotland — that of Skye in 1904 and that of Mull in 1924. The task of preparing a complete account of Arran geology, presenting Gunn's results and those of later workers in the same area, and including comparisons with the other Tertiary volcanic centres mentioned, was entrusted in 1925 to Dr. G. W. Tyrrell, of the Geological Department, Glasgow University, who has an intimate personal knowledge of the geology of the island. In the preparation of the volume now published, Dr. Tyrrell, in addition to his own published and unpublished work, has drawn freely on the earlier Memoir of 1903 and on the MS. notes on the southern part of the island left by Mr. Gunn. The sources of such contributions are indicated in the text by the initials W. G., W. G. (MS.), and A. H. Dr. Tyrrell also desires to acknowledge the help he has received from the researches of many workers in various fields of Arran geology since 1903, and to express his indebtedness to Dr. G. W. Lee, of the Geological Survey staff, for re-determining and revising the nomenclature of the Carboniferous and other fossils.

John S. Flett, Director. Geological Survey Office, 28 Jermyn Street, London, S. W.1, 31st October 1927.