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The twin peaks of Cul Mor

The ‘big back’ that is Cul Mor rises up from Knockan Crag to the east to overlook Loch Sionascaig and the peak of Stac Pollaidh to the west. Located in the Drumunie Estate, it is now part of the land owned by the Assynt community, who formed the Assynt Foundation to buy the estate and neighbouring Glencanisp in 2005. Together with the smaller peak of Cul Beag, Cul Mor’s rocky flanks dominate the view as you drive north from Ullapool.

While just one of the famous Assynt peaks, and less well known than Suilven and Stac Pollaidh, Cul Mor does sit at the heart of a major geological debate.

The so-called ‘Highland controversy’, over the way the landscape and rocks of Scotland were formed, began here in the 1850s, and has gone on to shape our understanding of the geology of the world. Prominent Victorian geologists Murchison and Geikie argued that the layers of rock in the Northwest Highlands must have formed vertically, younger rocks forming on top of older ones. They dismissed claims from less well-established figures, such as Nicol and Lapworth, that there were in fact younger rocks beneath older ones, demonstrating that there must be horizontal forces at work in the formation of the landscape.