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Well it was back to Iona again to try to finish off last week's work.Much fun with dodgy routers, dodgy broadband, even dodgier VPNs and a PC with tamper proof tape which wouldnt switch on. Dodginess of the highest order. Of course, the problem was a disconnected internal power lead which lay behind the tamper proof tape..... however, old age and treachery will defeat anything that youth can offer, and service was quickly resumed. The great thing about walking and exploring is that it puts this sort of nonsense into perspective. Now if it would only pay the bills....

Anyway, the stuff you really want to know:
Here is the view, just off the 5pm ferry, looking back to Mull:



Right, Sunday evening after a very nice meal at the best B and B in Iona, and off I trundled to search out what one heretic once described as "jist look like a load o auld stanes tae me". The west side of Iona is beautiful. Even more so in perfect sunny weather and a light breeze. From the machair, looking south ish:



The machair on the left is the golf course, of course.

There are so many nice little inlets with great beaches and tremendous rocks. This one is a cracker:





Most of the rock on the western side of Iona is Lewisian Gneiss, but in several places it is cut by various igneus intrusions of a much later date. These are in the form of dykes and sills. Dykes are approximately vertical and cut across strata - sills are intruded into the existing rocks and tend to be horizontal-ish. Not very scientific I know but you get the drift.



The vertical cleft is a worn away dyke, the red rock at the base of the rocks is a sill of what is referred to in many older books as "porphyrite". Micro-granite is the more modern name for it. It is quite common in several places in Iona and the bright red colour is very distinctive:



Just before heading back again, here is a view from the shore looking up at one of the very distinctive craggy knolls that are such a feature of the Lewisian gneiss:



I think that is Dun Cul Bhuirg in the picture. The blackish looking rock on the shore is an amphibolite - quite common on the west side.

The sun going down looked impressive:



And so, back to the B&B and off to bed...


Next morning, up nice and early, there was a beautiful thin crescent moon hanging above Fionnphort, but the pic did not turn out well - looked really nice as well. Never mind, the sky did look fine and moody later:



I headed down towards Traigh nan Siolag and the cliffs above the shore there. The rocks around here are Torridonian, not so old as the gneiss on the west side, but still as fascinating. Every so often, there are "erratic" boulders of Ross of Mull granite to be found, brought westwards during the ice age, carried by glaciers. Here is one on the cliff top:



And here is another, down on the shore:



The whole area is covered in granite boulders. The Ross of Mull granite which of course is the beautiful pink rock that you find at Fionnphort actually outcrops on the little islands just off the east coast of Iona. So the contact between the granite and the Iona rocks must lie just offshore. The little Island in this pic is made of granite:



Eilean Carrach, I think that one is. Well that was it for the morning walk - back for breakfast and then to work.

Later in the afternoon, I met up with Angus Miller who runs Geowalks. Angus specialises in geological tours all over Scotland (he is based in Edinburgh) and he has regular trips to Mull and Iona. Check out his web site - just do a search for geowalks - it is well worth looking at.

Bye for now

James