The Quaraing

The Quaraing is an amazing area at the north end of Skye. If you look at the bottom photograph you will see that it is made of tilted layers. It is the result of basalt lava flows from a massive volcano where the Cuillin mountains now stand, 20 miles to the south. These can just be seen in the far distance on the right of the picture. My earlier pictures from the Old Man of Storr show that the lava was very gassy because you can still see the bubbles. With the gas being less dense that the liquid, the bubbles float to the top. I have read that this makes the top of each successive layer more crumbly. There was a massive landslide resulting in the weird features like The Table, which is hard to find but just as good as it looks. The top picture shows the miniature features resulting from the landslide. The rock has been split in two perpendicular planes. The corners of the original rock are still sharp because they were not transported and subject to erosion. Instead, mineral rich fluid penetrated the cracks, The water evaporated and left the mineral veins. The rock was frighteningly crumbly and bits were coming off in my hand as we negotiated that gully!