A gem among rocks
September 26th 2008
Image courtesy of Pam.
I’ve been vaguely aware of Knockan Crag for most of my life, having driven past it on the way to Lochinver for years. It never really grabbed my attention before, being an inconspicuous wee hill in among the eye-catching glories of the Assynt and Coigach mountains: with Suilven, Stac Pollaidh and Canisp parading their tempting summits before me, I wasn’t likely to turn round and check out Knockan Rock.
But a couple of years ago, the north-west Highlands were awarded European Geopark status – the first locality in Scotland to be recognised with the title. Suddenly I was seeing leaflets and posters about Knockan Crag and its unique position in the history of geology, and a couple of weeks ago I finally went to have a look.
I pulled up in the car park with Lee and another friend and was almost immediately accosted by a cheery gentleman in a red waterproof who offered to show us round the site. This was Donald Fisher, a local geologist who has the ability to make a wee chip in a big grey rock tell a story of epic proportions. We followed him up and round the Crag, hearing about how the structure of the hill below us had been formed in layers and how the most important discovery in geology had happened right there in the nineteenth century.
Donald had us hooked as he described how ancient rock from deep below the surface had been thrust up to slide on top of higher, younger layers, giving hard evidence to the ideas that developed into plate tectonic theory. (Donald, if you happen to read this and I’ve got the technical stuff wrong, feel free to leave a comment and put me right!)
At one point we were able to touch, with the thumb and finger of one hand, two seperate layers of rock which were formed 500 million years apart and had been pushed together over millenia before people, and probably even midgies, existed in the Highlands.
At intervals around the site are beautiful pieces of rock art, including stones carved with lines from the poetry of Norman MacCaig and a perfect globe constructed of layers of slate that fits its surroundings so well it seems to have grown there.
I didn’t expect to be entertained as well as interested at Knockan Rock, nor to be moved by poetry while hiking up the crag. The place is a gem among rocks, and Donald Fisher is a bit of a pearl himself.