Page 287 - Volcano and Geothermal Tourism

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quantities of incandescent ash over a 20km radius; wild, dangerous and unknown) for English
the event was similar to, but around ten times larger travellers; indeed until the arrival of the few
than, the 1980 Mt St Helens, USA eruption. railways from the mid-1850s journeys into and
Successive cataclysmic eruptions piled up great around the region were slow and accommodation
thicknesses of lavas and ash deposits over the caldera unreliable. The final volume of Englishman Daniel
as a new magma chamber consumed the lower Defoe’s three-volume A Tour Thro’ the whole Island
reaches of the old caldera. While Rum’s volcano of Great Britain of 1724 to 1727 covered Scotland
would have towered a thousand or more metres and became the Scottish guidebook – based on his
above the surrounding landscape it was rapidly 1706 to 1708 and 1712 travels although it seems
eroded (estimated at 3–4mm per year, around twice that the accounts of the Highlands and Islands
as fast as that of the Himalayas today) when it were not based on his actual first-hand observations.
became extinct as the crustal plate carried it away New military roads, laid from the 1720s onwards,
from the mantle plume. Rum has comparatively few improved access to the region. Thomas Gray, a
visitors, and most go to see the birdlife, because of pioneer of the Romantic, was one of the earliest
its protected status and difficulty and cost of access. Highlands travellers, in 1764 and 1765, to admire
Skye is the other great volcanic destination, and their natural beauty. In 1789 William Gilpin
much more visited due to its accessibility especially published his Observations, Relative Chiefly To
since it was linked to the mainland by a road bridge Picturesque Beauty, Particularly the High-Lands of
in 1995. The island’s volcanic centre and its Cuillin Scotland following his tours across Britain in the
Hills (made of gabbro from a magma chamber that 1760s and 1770s. His 1776 Highlands tour
supplied a volcano that erupted around 50 million introduced its scenic beauty to a wide audience
years ago) have been a major mountain tourist when it was published in 1789, making them a
attraction and latterly a mountain climbing centre desired destination for generations of landscape
since the late 19th century. painters; his textual descriptions and landscape and
Much further to the south of Ardnamurchan nature aquatints created a new style of travel
and great island volcanic centres of Rum and Skye writing.
is the Isle of Arran volcanic centre, much visited Surprisingly, even the new military roads were
by geology students for the past 150 years since reluctantly trodden by Scottish artists. Even the
Hutton’s seminal text. Its geology is dominated by founder of Scottish landscape painting Alexander
two exposed volcanic rock associations, the Nasmyth rarely ventured outside his comfortable
northern granite pluton and the central ring Edinburgh studio in the early 1800s for long
complex. The former, which forms the highest despite his commissions to paint large houses and
and most spectacular scenery of the island, is the castles in their landscapes; Lugar Water (1775–1799)
unroofed remains of a major but strictly non- is typical of his highly romantic stylized classical
volcanic diapiric intrusion and the latter the approach. His painting A View in Glen Coe,
remains of a volcanic caldera complex noteworthy Argyllshire (1814) captures the grandeur of the
for its inclusion of incorporated blocks of scene with some redolence to contemporary
fossiliferous Jurassic and Cretaceous limestones visualizations of the European Alps, and his circa
that provide the only evidence of the former 1820 painting Portencross, at the Mouth of the Clyde
northern extent in Britain of such deposits. is a romanticized dramatic coastal scene in which
However, the discovery of the region’s geology the geology of the cliffs is most accurately
required the opening up of the area to travellers, depicted.
the precursors of modern geotourists. Nasmyth’s youngest daughter, Charlotte,
painted atmospheric landscapes, amongst the finest
Geotourism in the Highlands of which is Mountainous Landscape with a Sailing
and Islands Boat on the Lake. Nasmyth’s worthy successor was
Early travellers Aberdeen based James Giles; Queen Victoria
commissioned him to paint the 1849 watercolour
Before the 1760s, the Highlands and Islands were Lochnagar: The loch in the corrie of the mountain, on
an exotic destination (and a real journey into the the Balmoral estate which had been leased a year

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