Door thirteen

Today’s collection of photographs entered into our 100 Great Geosites photo competition are of the beautiful Glencoe, in the Scottish Highlands. Second only to the Cuillins in number of entries received, we could have made an entire calendar of Glancoes alone!

Glencoe is famous for offering one of the most well known views in Scotland. Gemma Milne sent us several images, including this, demonstrating the view from the road as you approach…

Glencoe c Gemma Milne

Glencoe, in addition to offering one of the most stunning views in Scotland, is also attributed to being one of the best-exposed examples of cauldron subsidence. The origins of the volcanic rocks posed many problems for the early geologists such as Robert Jameson (1774 – 1854) and John MacCulloch (1773 – 1835) who visited the glen in the early 1800′s. Many theories were proposed on the formation of the rocks, but it was not until the early 1900′s that Sir Edward Bailey (1881 – 1965) first understood its origins. Research into the finer details of the nature of the eruptions and subsidence is still ongoing. (Text c. scottishgeology.com.)

Glencoe from Old Road c Jennifer Bouwsema

Glencoe is the remains of an ancient super volcano. The eruption happened about 420 million years ago during the Silurian period – the volcano has long since been extinct.

Gijs de Reijke, who took our winning image of the Cuillins, also sent us this beautiful image of Glencoe at dusk.

Glen Coe c Gijs de Reijke

Long after the volcanic eruptions which shaped Glencoe had taken place, the landscape was further shaped by glaciation during the last ice age, 10,000 years ago.

The 100 Great Geosites calendar features an image of Glencoe by Brent Bouwsema – who also took this atmospheric image of the glen.