Product Description

Scotland is justly famed for its magnificent scenery - mountains, lochs, islands, wild rocky places and sandy beaches. All this is evidence of an exciting geological history which began 3,500 billion years ago and is still continuing. The sheer diversity of Scotland's rocks and landforms are the physical reminders of a fascinating journey through time. They reveal that the land that makes up Scotland today has travelled the world and has not always even belonged to one single continental landmass. At different times, too, continents formed and split apart, ancient volcanoes erupted vast quantities of lava and Ice Age glaciers shaped the landscape. Containing a huge amount of detailed information presented in clear, comprehensible language and enhanced throughtout with specially commissioned illustrations, diagrams and photographs, this is an essential book for anyone interested in the world around them.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #37070 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-30
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
'Big and beautifully illustrated, this book is rigorous yet lucid, and written with patriotic pride - a work of more than scientific importance, *****' --The Scotsman

It is hard to praise this book enough --Geoscientist

Authoritative, stunningly illustrated and very well-produced --Scottish Geographical Journal

About the Author
Alan McKirdy has worked in conservation for almost thirty years. He has edited or written many popular books on geology and has contributed to a number of TV and radio programmes. John Gordon has studied and written extensively about the landforms and glacial history of Scotland. He is Earth Science Group manager with Scottish Natural Heritage. Roger Crofts is an environmental and management adviser, lecturer and writer. He was Chief Executive of Scottish Natural Heritage from 1992 to 2000.

Customer Reviews

Review from Scotsman newspaper
FIRST with the news, albeit after 20,000 years, it was this paper that in 1840 broke the story of the Ice Age; the astronomer royal, Dr Neville Maskelyne, had already used Schiehallion to calculate Earth's mass. It's easily overlooked, but the modern science of geology has been one of the most important legacies of the Scottish Enlightenment. That story is just a subplot in a book which sets out to explain how the country we know as Scotland came to be, over untold millions of years, but it lends a special resonance to a stupendous subject. This small land is built on enormous geological complexity: it seems fitting that it should have been in at the start of the systematic study of Earth's formation. Big and beautifully illustrated, this book is rigorous yet lucid, and written with patriotic pride - a work of more than scientific importance.

Fascinating subject, brilliant book
For me, this book reads as easily as a good novel, and I refer to it before any 'day out' in Scotland, so I know what I'll be looking at. The text is straightforward, the diagrams are informative and the photographs are superb. Congratulations to all concerned in the book's production, and thank you for adding another dimension to my view of my country.

Beautiful coffee table book
What a wonderful, well wirtten and illustrated book. I found it very interesting and easy to read. The photographs are beautiful and i enjoyed the layout and format very much. A present which I was very happy to recieve!