Knowledge (XXG)

Siccar Point

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Ocean) that had existed between Scotland and England and the building of mountains of a Himalayan scale to the north west. The Silurian sediments were first buried, then lithified into rock, then folded and uplifted and finally eroded to a horizontal surface before being buried by Devonian sediments washed south from the erosion of the mountains. Further tectonic movements later tilted the whole to its current gentle northward dip.
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At the location, near vertical marine sandstones of early Silurian (Llandovery) age (c.440 Ma) are overlain unconformably by gently dipping terrestrial sandstones of late Devonian age (c.375 Ma). The intervening 65 million years represent a time between the tectonic closing of an ocean (the Iapetus
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theory of geological development; that is, that the natural laws and processes which operate in the universe have never changed and apply everywhere. In respect for its great importance to the development of geoscience, this locality was included by the
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The eroded sandstone outcrop above conglomerate and vertical ribs of greywacke, still much as when sketched in 1788 by Hutton's companion
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to be used as roadstone left a hollow named Old Cambus Quarry which is now occupied by a vegetable distribution warehouse complex.
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The rugged point, seen from above, shows gently sloping beds of red sandstone above vertical beds of
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of the point. He wrote later that the evidence of the rocks provided conclusive proof of the
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Field sketch of Hutton's Unconformity at Siccar Point, Scotland by Sir James Hall (1788).
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village of Old Cambus was nearer to Siccar Point than the extant hamlet of Old Cambus.
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Research Casting International hung on scaffolding off the cliffs at Siccar Point
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Headlands south of Siccar Point showing tilted strata and unconformities
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about one kilometre to the west of the point. The church is built in a
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painting a large section of the rocks with thick liquid latex (photo)
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Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Berwickshire and Roxburgh
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to fabricate an exhibit for the Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth
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John Playfair's historic remarks upon seeing Siccar Point
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as a result of a boat trip in 1788 in which geologist
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forming the field boundaries. It is likely that the
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Index

Promontory
The point seen from the west
Siccar Point is located in Scottish Borders
Scottish Borders
55°55′54″N 2°18′04″W / 55.931588°N 2.3012°W / 55.931588; -2.3012
Grid position
NT812709
North Sea
Age
Silurian
Devonian
IUGS
Berwickshire
Scotland
geology
Hutton's Unconformity
James Hutton
uniformitarian

dun
hill fort
ancient Britons
Cockburnspath
Old Cambus
ruin
Romanesque
Old Red Sandstone
Greenheugh Bay
greywacke
drystone dyke

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