Earlier this week Hazel and Emma joined me down in the Scottish Borders for a look at some interesting geology. On the first day we drove down to the coast to engage in some fossil hunting. Parking in Burnmouth, we walked South along the beaches and cliffs. I’d liked to have gone down as far as Scremerston just South of Berwick, but we were a bit pushed for time.
Burnmouth Beach
Unfortunately we arrived shortly before high tide, with most of the fossiliferous beds marked in our helpful guidebook (McAdam et al. 1992) drowned by the sea. Despite that, the cliffs to the South looked interesting so we ambled down there, stopping occasionally to look at the lovely micaceous sandstone pebbles covering the beach. Some of the features seen on the cliffs are shown below:
Steeply Dipping Micaceous Sandstone
Small Deformation Bands
Odd weathering effect (heterogeneous cementation?)
One of the interesting things found here (which none of us had encountered in the field before) was what appears to be a geode:
Geode
Cross Bedding was also evident in some of the rock; although it also varied from finely laminated to massive in sections.
Cross-Bedding
At this point we ran out of beach, so were forced to climb up on top of the cliffs to continue southwards.
Steeply Dipping Beds submerged by tides
We continued south, seeing some wonderful looking things from afar. However, due to a combination of high tides and being on top of a cliff we weren’t able to inspect them up close.
More reddish Sandstones
A Sea Stack colonised by Seagulls
This sea stack is apparently called the Maiden’s Stone and, from a distance, appears to be a cross-bedded sandstone.
We stopped for a quick snack above a ruined old cottage; which the map claims is an old fishery.
The view down from our picnic spot
It was around 18:00 now (we’d had a late start) so we decided to head back to the car, so that we would have time to visit our next two stops: The excellent Chippy in Eyemouth and Siccar Point.
Hazel and Emma
Recommended Reading:
McAdam, A. D., Clarkson, E. N. K., and Stone, P.. (1992). Scottish Borders Geology: an excursion guide. Scottish Academic Press.
Tags: Borders, Borders09, Carboniferous, Geology