Page 289 - Volcano and Geothermal Tourism

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Nattes; his perception of the Highlands was volcanic geology date from the late 18th century.
heavily influenced by the Romantic Movement, Amongst the first of these were observations by
evident in his 1801 Remarks on Local Scenery & James Hutton, arguably the founder of modern
Manners in Scotland. Sarah Murray, the English geology, who between 1785 and 1788 undertook
authoress, is one of the region’s earliest recorded fieldwork across Scotland seeking the evidence in
solo women travellers. In 1796 she travelled, the rocks to support his theories. He was often
mainly by carriage, through Argyllshire and the accompanied by Sir John Clerk of Penicuick
central Highlands. In 1800, she visited Mull, Staffa whose seventh son, Sir John Clerk of Eldin,
and Iona. She continued her Hebridean tour in accompanied Hutton on his 1787 Arran trip,
1802, visiting Mull, Ulva, Coll, Eigg, Rhum, Skye during which Clerk was inspired enough by the
and Scalpay. She published in 1799 A Companion, geology and related scenery to prepare several
and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland: To the superb cross-sections of the island. Hutton
Lakes of Westmoreland, Cumberland, and Lancashire, observed on Newton Shore that layers of
and A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties sedimentary rock were tilted up vertically and
in the Western Highlands of Scotland in 1805. Both overlain by other sediments of a different age and
included practical advice for travellers and were at a different angle; he concluded that lower layers
widely plagiarized in later guidebooks. of rock had been deposited eons before, then later
Dorothy Wordsworth’s 1874 Recollections of a upturned and covered by newer layers of rock. In
Tour Made in Scotland A.D. 1803 was published these ‘unconformities’ between rock layers, Hutton
long after her death in 1855, even though it was saw evidence of vast expanses of time in Earth
her only journal actually intended (unlike the history. This and related observations and critical
better known Grasmere Journals) for publication. In thinking led to Hutton’s main ideas: the processes
December 1799, Dorothy and her brother William that shape the Earth are slow, continuous and
moved to Dove Cottage in Grasmere from where cyclical and the driving force is volcanism, as
in 1803 she, William and the poet Samuel Taylor published in his seminal and eventual three-
Coleridge started a six-week tour of Scotland. volume, Theory of the Earth.
William had already visited Scotland in 1801, but Almost a century later, John Wesley Judd
it was a first visit for Dorothy and Coleridge. They commenced fieldwork and scientific publication
travelled on a horse and cart through Dumfriesshire on the Province’s volcanoes (Judd, 1889). Modern
and Lanarkshire to Glasgow, thence onto Loch accounts of Scotland’s geodiversity are widely
Lomond where Coleridge left due to illness. available in both technical and populist formats –
Dorothy and William journeyed on through a measure of its interest to both dedicated and
Argyllshire and returned via Glen Coe to the casual geotourists and its significance in the
route of the small Highland tour; on their way development of an understanding of volcanic
back they visited the Trossachs, returning via activity; for both, the publications of the BGS
Edinburgh to England. Dorothy Wordsworth provide a sound geological underpinning and
returned to Scotland in 1822. The Scottish doctor Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH), particularly for
John Macculloch published Scotland’s earliest Arran, Skye and Rum, provide a good background
scientific account, a Description of the Western Isles of on landscape evolution.
Scotland, in 1819 and a detailed map in 1836.
Modern Scottish geotourism
Promoting geotourism to the Geotourism and geoparks
west coast volcanoes Modern geotourism was recognized and defined
The country’s earliest geology map was included in the early 1990s (Hose, 2008); its original
in Ami Boue’s Essai Geoloqique sur l’Ecosse of circa definition (Hose, 1995, p17) along with some of
1820. Official Geological Survey Scottish fieldwork its associated concepts was incorporated within
began in 1854 in the Lothians, but the Highlands the UNESCO 2000 Geoparks Programme
had to wait until 1882. Publications on Scotland’s Feasibility Study (See Patzack and Eder, 1998), as

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