Читать книгу The Isle of Mull. Mull, Ulva, Gometra, Iona and Erraid онлайн

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Today Mull and its neighbouring islands have a population of fewer than 3000. Farming, fishing and forestry used to be the economic mainstays of the island, but increasingly, tourism is responsible for much of the island economy.

Geology

If the history of Mull is not very well documented, the island’s geology is quite the opposite, and its geological pedigree is such that it has for many years attracted geologists in large numbers, who come to marvel at the landscape and its secrets. Common to most accounts is the imagery that Mull is constructed like a multi-tiered wedding cake, with thick layers of basalt lava sitting on top of a complicated basement of much older rocks which poke out around the edges of Mull. Geologists love Mull because it has such a long and interesting history (the oldest rocks, found on Iona, are about 2000 million years old), and it has unique structures and rocks found nowhere else in the world.

Basalt columns, Ulva (Walk 4.1)

Like much of Britain, Mull has not always been in its present position, and geological time has seen it affected by enormous changes. Mull’s oldest rocks were formed in the southern hemisphere, and, in common with the rest of the British Isles, Mull has gradually drifted northwards. A study of its rocks, even by the non-specialist, shows that they have preserved details of the climatic zones that they passed through on their northward journey. One particularly fine example of this will be found if you stand on the shoreline opposite Inch Kenneth at Gribun. Here, you will be standing on sandstones deposited in a desert region at the same sort of latitude as the Persian Gulf.