The Edinburgh Geologist
Issue no 37

Red Rocks

by Alan Fyfe

In the absence of any contributions from Fellows, I have decided to follow up on a topic thatis of particular interest to me!

While I was in Hong Kong in the mid-nineties, I spent some time mapping the Devonian coastal section on Port Island in the eastern part of the Territory. As the little boat chugged towards its red cliffs (for the Devonian has a red facies even as far away as China), I had time to reflect on the name of the island. To the British colonials, it was the island at the head of the great natural harbour of Tolo Channel. To the Chinese it was simply CHEK CHAU, 'red island.' We have them in Scotland too, of course, for example An Ruadh-eilean, 'the red island', off the coast of Applecross, and Sgeir Dearg, 'red skerry', northeast of Scalpay off Skye. These are both Torridonian rather than Devonian, but I thought that it might be interesting to see how geology can be responsible for designation of place names. In this article, I shall be considering mainly red place names, though I shall take a ramble through blacks, greys, greens and blues as well.

There are actually two reds in Gaelic: dearg, a deep blood red with a hint of crimson [*note: I have taken many of the translations in this article from Peter Drummond's book Scottish Hill Names published by the Scottish Mountaineering Trust. In order to make the piece readbale, I have not attributed each occasion], and ruadh, more of a soft russet brown. It might be expected that the latter would crop up more often, but it is surprising how many Carn Deargs there are around. It may be that the word is used to emphasize the difference between the red rocks of one mountain and the grey rocks of the surrounding area or neighbouring hills. Considering red rocks geologically, there are a lot of these in Scotland: the Torridonian, the Old Red Sandstone and the New Red Sandstone are the main sedimentary examples, but there are Caledonian granites and Cenozoic granites as well.

As regards the Torridonian, I have given the example of two red islands on either side of the Inner Sound, but it is interesting to look further north. Here we have Red Point north of Loch Torridon as well as mountains such as Ruadh Stac Mor, 'big red stack' and Beinn Dearg Mor, 'big red mountain', neighbouring hills in the Fisherfield Estate. But as well as the red facies of Stoer and Torridon groups, there is the grey facies of the Sleat Group [Torridonian stratigraphers will no doubt tell me that it is not as simple as this. Okay, go on- tell me!]. Thus, further north, between Loch Ewe and Gruinard Bay, there is Greenstone Point. The Gaelic for this is Rubha na Lice Uaine, 'point of the green slabs', a reference to the drab flagstones. As well as uaine, which is generally a brighter green, the Gaels also have glas, which is more of a greenish grey. And there are several Glas Eileans scattered along the northwestern coast.

The Old Red Sandstone provides a similar colour range, though because of its distribution, Gaelic names are more difficult to come by. The cliff face at the northern end of Pease Bay, a locality well known to many of the Fellows of the Society, is known as Red Rock. But I am jumping ahead stratigraphically. The Lower Old Red Sandstone of Angus gives us place names such as Redcastle, on Lunan Bay, and Redford, 8 km inland from Arbroath. At the other end of the Midland Valley, the Old Red Sandstone is found on the coast of the Firth of Clyde, though Red Clydeside is so named for different reasons altogether.

The Middle Old Red Sandstone is restricted to Orkney and Caithness, which provides an interesting diversion, because in those regions, place names are almost entirely Norse. The Norse word for red is raud, while grey and green are gra and graenn respectively. Interestingly, however, the Vikings tended to name the parts of their landscape after people and animals rather than be influenced by the more poetic inspiration that stimulated the Gaels. Having said that, there is a Red Holm and both Muckle and Little Green Holms off the island of Eday. Hölm is a small island while muckle is an anglicisation of the Norse mykill meaning great.

The Upper Old Red Sandstone, with its bright orangish red colouring, should provide a wealth of place names, but with its outcrops scattered throughout the Midland Valley, it is rather difficult to tie down. I have mentioned Red Rock at the northern end of Pease Bay. At the southern end of the bay, the rocks are less oxidised, which gives the cliffs a more drab colour and the name of Greenheugh. Heugh is a 'rugged steep', possibly derived from the Old English hoh. In the main Borders outcrop of the Upper Old Red Sandstone, I have found Redpath Hill near Melrose, as well as the little hamlet of Sandystones, south of St. Boswells.

But if the Upper Old Red Sandstone proves difficult, the New Red Sandstone is just about hopeless. Part of the problem seems to be that the areas of its outcrop are agricultural land and an abundance of more modern names are found here. Mind you, up near Elgin I did find the farm of Rothills, though I feel that to suggest that this comes from the German rot, meaning red, is a little far-fetched!

And so to the granites. Again, in the Highlands, the Gaelic provides a wealth of place names. From the Cairngorm Massif (actually, Cairn Gorm means 'blue peak' but refers to the hazy blue colour that mountains afford from a distance), there are several Carn Deargs (Peter Drummond counts a dozen instances in upper Deeside alone), as well as a Coire Ruadh above Glen Feshie. From the Glencoe Complex, we have Stob Dearg, 'the red peak', the highest summit on Buachaille Etive Mor, and from the Ben Nevis cauldron, Carn Mor Dearg, where the pink scree gives the mountain a distinctive colour. In some cases, the place names can suggest geological correlation as well. The Ross of Mull is lacking in red place names despite its being granitic, but 5 km to the south, the Torran Rocks include a Dearg Sgeir and a Ruadh Sgeir, both red skerries. Geophysical investigations have shown that the Ross of Mull granite extends southwards and encompasses these islands.

The Cenozoic igneous intrusions provide a poorer source of red place names, though this is largely because they tend to be basic in composition. On the island of Skye , we have the Cuillin, which probably from the Norse kjolen, meaning simply 'a high place'. But, more significantly for geologists, these mountains are divided into the Red Cuillin and the Black Cuillin. The former, all rounded hills, comprise granite, while the latter, more rugged, comprise gabbro and ultrabasic rocks. The names of individual peaks in these ranges reflect the colours as well, with more than one Beinn Dearg Mhor, 'big red mountain' in the Red Cuillin and names such as Sgurr Dubh Mhor, 'big black peak' in the Black Cuillin. Interestingly, the summit near which the Inaccessible Pinnacle stands (and it could be argued that it is geological forces that make it so inaccessible) is Sgurr Dearg, 'red peak'. I wonder whether this is possibly attributable to the red colour of weathered gabbro.

Further south, rhyolites and breccias on Mull give the name Sgurr Dearg to one of the prominent peaks on the island, but there is a paucity of red place names. Of course, there is a corresponding wealth of black ones: Eilean Dubh, Staffa, several An Dubh-sgeirs as well as Clach Dhubh, 'black rock' off Skye, Dubh Artach, 'black quarry', 25 km west of Colonsay and, still further offshore, Blackstones Bank itself. The lavas provide an interesting finale. The flat-lying nature of the stacked basalt flows provides place names such as MacLeod's Tables. These are individually named Healaval Mhor and Healaval Bheag, which are the large and small tables respectively. Healaval itself probably comes from the Old Norse hellyr meaning 'flagstone.' But that is another story altogether.

---

As well as having worked on the Devonian red sandstones of Berwickshire and Hong Kong, your Editor is a member of the Scottish Place Names Society and has an interest in toponymics... yes, that's what the subject is called!

Note: there is a postscript to this article in the Spring 2002 issue of The Edinburgh Geologist
 

[Return to Edinburgh Geologist index]