This guide is for those who wish to understand the interplay between rocks and scenery in a truly classic geology in Europe. Nowhere else in Britain is this link to be more clearly observed. The key localities that make the Scottish Highlands unique are explained in a series of excursions. The Western Highlands contain some of the oldest rocks in Europe in a landscape formed more than a billion years ago that has re-emerged from the depths. Geologists have been examining these rocks since the early nineteenth century and, in spite of intense research in this tiny fraction of the Earth's surface, major controversies still surround some of the rock formations. Many fundamentally important concepts in geology were first developed here and then applied elsewhere around the world. The region is an outstanding natural laboratory for the study of mountain building and folding, including the discovery that thick sequences of rocks have been turned completely upside down, and pushed sideways by over 100 km. Representatives of all the major rocks types are found here, and their ages span three-quarters of geological time since the Earth began, some four and a half billion years ago.The book is divided into seven areas, starting from the north coast between Tongue and Cape Wrath, then south towards Scourie, Lochinver, Stoer, Ullapool, Assynt, Gairloch, Torridon, Applecross, Kyle of Lochalsh, Glenelg, Ardnamurchan, Mallaig, Fort William, Glen Roy, Glencoe, Ben Nevis, Glen Nevis and finishing at Oban.
Excursions are easily accessible, along footpaths and the coast, with a few more challenging options, including Ben Nevis, Scotland's highest mountain.