Geology
Excursions
We organise excursions
from springtime to autumn:
including day, evening
and residential excursions.
The Geology Excursion Programme features a range of events, including our core programme of day excursions and local evening excursions, led by a geologist with expert knowledge of the locality.
Read the Code of Conduct & Safety Guidelines and find out how to book your place
This year, all our excursions are free of charge. EGS Council has agreed to subsidise the costs of the excursion programme, including coach hire for Saturday excursions that are difficult to reach by public transport. Please do not abuse the system by booking excursions and not turning up, or cancelling at short notice. You may deprive someone else of the opportunity. We will keep the booking system under review. You must notify David Graham, the Excursions Booking Secretary if you have booked an excursion and are not able to attend.
Saturday & Sunday Excursions 2024
Saturday 25 May Spireslack Surface Coalmine, East Ayrshire
Leaders: Dr Graham Leslie and Mike Browne
Spireslack is an abandoned surface coalmine at Glenbuck, an area with a long history of mining. The site preserves marvellous exposures of coal-bearing Carboniferous strata. The entirety of the Limestone Coal Formation is exposed in a one kilometre long, over 130 m thick section. Natural, clean and continuous exposures of these economically important strata are rare, and therefore the exposures at Spireslack give an opportunity to better understand the geology and structural evolution of this part of the Carboniferous within central Scotland.
Coach excursion from Edinburgh.
Excursion Information Sheet | Booking Information and Code of Conduct & Safety Guidelines
Saturday 8 June Hessilhead Quarry, Ayrshire
Leader: Dr Katie Strang
This excursion will examine rocks of the Lower Limestone Formation which are exposed in the now disused Hessilhead Quarry, North Ayrshire, which served the Lugton Lime Works. Historically, the Carboniferous limestones were of great economic importance in Scotland, and they have been utilised for various purposes, including for building, as a flux in industry and an an agricultural fertiliser. Although the main quarry is now flooded, there are still plenty of opportunities to see the limestone deposits and look for fossils among the old spoil heaps. The site is also a wildlife reserve and home to loads of great wildlife. Coach excursion from Edinburgh.
Coach excursion from Edinburgh.
Excursion Information Sheet will be available shortly | Booking Information and Code of Conduct & Safety Guidelines
Saturday 29 June Fast Castle and the Borders Coast
Leader: Prof Dorrik Stow, Heriot Watt University
The primary aim is to examine and discuss deepwater depositional systems – Silurian turbidites and associated facies – well exposed in the Fast Castle area. Other features of interest include glacial features, geological structures and Devonian volcanics and sediments in the wider area.
Coach excursion from Edinburgh.
Excursion Information Sheet | Booking Information and Code of Conduct & Safety Guidelines
Saturday 13 July Arbroath and Auchmithie
Leaders: John Taylor, Morag Smith and Robert Solley
Starting at Whiting Ness near Arbroath, we will view the Devonian Upper Old Red Sandstone unconformably overlying the Lower ORS sequence, and trace this along the beach observing various sedimentary features and debris flows. We will then continue towards Carling Heugh Bay noting sedimentary features, fault orientations and geomorphological sites of interest. At Auchmithie we will visit the beach where conglomerates can be viewed in detail along with calcite and barytes fault fill.
Coach excursion from Edinburgh.
Excursion Information Sheet | Booking Information and Code of Conduct & Safety Guidelines
Saturday 24 August Longniddry to Aberlady shore, East Lothian (joint excursion with the Geological Society of Glasgow)
Leader: Dr Mark Wilkinson, University of Edinburgh
The shoreline from Longniddry Bents to Aberlady Point exposes Carboniferous sedimentary rocks intruded by the Gosford Bay Sill. Cyclic sedimentation is well demonstrated, considered to represent the normal sequence of events in a subsiding delta. Periodically the trees growing on the deltas died and were covered by the sea, before the next influx of mud and sand shallowed the water sufficiently for another forest to establish itself. A typical cycle has an upward sequence of marine limestone, shale, sandstone, seatearth, coal, marine limestone.
Excursion Information Sheet | Booking Information and Code of Conduct & Safety Guidelines
Saturday 7 September Canty Bay, East Lothian
Leaders: Dr Tom Challands, Stephen McDonald, Alison McInnes, John Wrench
‘Romer’s Gap’ was considered to be a hiatus in the fossil record of tetrapods in the Lower Carboniferous. The recent TW:eed project demonstrated a high diversity of tetrapods and other vertebrate groups in this time period. This trip visits a new vertebrate fossil site at the very end of Romer’s Gap. Canty Bay preserves the uppermost Ballagan Formation dominated by semi-arid flood-plain sediments punctuated by conglomerate-filled channels. An active landslip situated next to the Drift café has recently exposed further flood-plain mudstones and siltstone yielding numerous vertebrate ‘bone beds’. The sections represent a dynamic sedimentary environment with a vertebrate fauna that is providing insight into this key stage of vertebrate evolution.
Excursion Information Sheet | Booking Information and Code of Conduct & Safety Guidelines
Saturday 07 and Sunday 08 September the Carboniferous Fife-Midlothian Basin
Leaders: Victor Heme de Lacotte and Chester Davies (Keele Uni PhD students), and Dr Louis Howell (Capricorn Energy)
Note: due to availability of leaders, the date of these excursions has changed to 07/08 September (was 21/22 September)
Four linked excursions over two days at sites around the Carboniferous Fife-Midlothian Basin. These will explore the strata and sedimentology of the Leven-Midlothian syncline on either side of the Forth, in Fife on Saturday and East Lothian on Sunday. We will carefully examine key changes and translate our findings into interpretation of the offshore seismic data, with opportunities to learn the rudiments of stratigraphical logging. Informal post-fieldwork discussions can continue over refreshments.
Excursion Information Sheet | Booking Information and Code of Conduct & Safety Guidelines
Wednesday Evening Excursions 2024
Wednesday 24 April, 7pm George Street and Edinburgh’s West End, Edinburgh
Leader: Andrew McMillan
Continuing the examination of the building stone geology of the First New Town, this excursion includes the western half of George Street and parts of the West End. This will serve as a recce for a new booklet to be published by the Lothian and Borders GeoConservation group.
Excursion Planning Form | Booking Information and Code of Conduct & Safety Guidelines
Wednesday 5 June, 7pm Harlaw Reservoir to White Cleugh
Leader: Richard Smith
From Harlaw we will go past the Harlaw Reservoir, looking at interbedded sandstones and mudstones of the Lower Carboniferous Ballagan Formation, then crossing Kinnesswood sandstones to Black Springs and on to the flank of Black Hill microgranite, which is related to the volcanic rocks of the Pentland Hills. We continue to the meltwater channel at White Cleugh.
Excursion Planning Form | Booking Information and Code of Conduct & Safety Guidelines
Wednesday 19 June, 7pm Skateraw, East Lothian
Leader: Angus Miller
There are fine exposures of Carboniferous limestone at Skateraw, similar to those at nearby Barns Ness. The Blackhall Limestone in particular is very accessible and includes interesting small-scale tectonic features. There is also a well-preserved lime kiln. An underlying coal and seat earth are also exposed in places.
Excursion Planning Form | Booking Information and Code of Conduct & Safety Guidelines
Wednesday 3 July, 7pm Comiston Springs, south Edinburgh
Leader: Ken Hitchen
We will visit the location of the four main Comiston Springs – the source of the water for Edinburgh’s first ever clean water supply in 1676. The water was collected at the Comiston cistern building before being piped to the ‘Old Town’. We will learn how to recognize and plot the route of the original 1676 pipeline under the eastern slope of Braidburn Valley Park and the suburbs of south Edinburgh.
Excursion Planning Form | Booking Information and Code of Conduct & Safety Guidelines
Wednesday 10 July, 7pm Stockbridge to Dean Village
Leader: Beverly Bergman
[rescheduled from 22 May due to the weather]
We will walk from the bridge in Stockbridge village along the Water of Leith through the steep rock-cut gorge, examining the bedrock stratigraphy, several dykes, building stones and two historic medicinal wells. The route includes several bridges, each of which has a story to tell. We will consider the role that the Water of Leith played in Edinburgh’s heritage, and how this was influenced by the geology.
Excursion Planning Form | Booking Information and Code of Conduct & Safety Guidelines
Long and Weekend Excursions 2024
6-9 May Field Excursion to the Garvellach Islands
The Garvellach islands expose a magnificent section of the glacial Neoproterozoic Port Askaig Formation. Although part of the Dalradian it is relatively undeformed and contains an extraordinary amount of glacial features including spectacular glaciotectonic ‘rafts’ as well as a sequence at the base recording the transitional onset of glaciation at the start of the Cryogenian – which is a prime candidate for a global ‘golden spike’ or GSSP. We will discuss the concept of snowball earth and assess how the succession here fits (or doesn’t) with that model. Based at the Rubha Fiola field centre on Lunga, we will aim to have one day on each of the three main islands in the archipelago.
This excursion is fully booked: to join the waiting list please contact Angus Miller promotion@edinburghgeolsoc.org.
5-6 October Glaciation of Upper Teesdale
Teesdale Field Trip: Glaciation of Upper Teesdale
Leaders: Prof. Dave Evans (2022 Clough Medallist) and Dr. Brian Young
Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th October 2024
Trip Base Location: Teesdale Hotel, Middleton-in-Teesdale, County Durham.
Excursion Information Sheet | Booking Information and Code of Conduct & Safety Guidelines | Book here
EGS Online Excursions
Our YouTube Channel | Online Excursions Playlist
Subscribe to EGS YouTube channel
EGS Online Excursion 2020 Dalkeith Building Stones with Tom Challands
EGS Online Excursion 2020 Kinghorn-Kirkcaldy with Ian Kearsley
EGS Online Excursion 2020 to Joppa Shore with Robert Gatliff
Geological Excursions organised by other Societies in Scotland
The Geological Society of Glasgow
EGS members are welcome to attend excursions organised by the Geological Society of Glasgow where spaces are available. Further excursion details from their web site. Members are reminded they are eligible to join the Glasgow Society as Associate Members.