Comrie including Highland Boundary Fault and Earthquake House

Leader: Dr Simon Cuthbert

Comrie lies on the Highland Boundary Fault and has been called the “Shakin’ Town” because of the frequent seismic activity there, especially during the 19th century. Our visit will focus mainly on the geology in the Grampian block immediately to the north of the fault where we will explore beautifully exposed examples of contact metamorphic changes to the Dalradian Aberfoyle slate adjacent to a late Caledonian diorite intrusion, the Comrie pluton at Craig More. We will visit the famous “Earthquake House” by The Ross, just west of the town and see an early example of a seismometer. In the afternoon we will take a walk from Comrie along Glen Lednock to see the De’il’s Cauldron waterfall where the River Lednock has incised a rock-cut gorge, and finally return to the Comrie pluton to examine the igneous rocks themselves and their contact relations with the country-rocks. Comrie has some excellent opportunities for cake, and if we are not too long delayed on the rocks we may wish to explore these, too! The trip will involve a few kilometres of variably rough and boggy walking, sometimes quite steep for short intervals.