Siccar Point

The U3A Geology walk to Siccar Point was blessed with a perfect day. Twelve of us travelled by minibus to Cove and we walked at a steady pace with frequent stops as the leader explained what we could see.
A comfort break at Pease Bay was welcome, followed by a picnic lunch by the ruins of St Helen's Chapel before we arrived at Siccar Point itself much more interesting seen in large).

As I understand it:- It was this point on the Berwickshire coast that James Hutton, a local farmer and amateur geologist, confirmed his theory that, contrary to accepted opinion, the earth was aeons old rather than merely thousands of years.

With friends Sir James Hall and John Playfair he observed from the seaward side that the rocks at Siccar Point do not relate to each other: the vertical layers of Greywacke rock, (seabed rock transformed in a process of folding and erosion) were laid down 55 million years before the overlying horizontal Old Red Sandstone was created (from deposition of sands and gravel). This situation is known as an unconformity.

A few members of the group, including Mr Flum, walked down the steep slope to view the rocks at close quarters, they can be seen here which gives a sense of scale. While we ambled back to Pease Bay for ice cream our leader (with the help of a member's car) nipped back to Cove and brought the minibus round which spared our aged limbs a few miles of toil.