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Lying on the northwestern fringes of Scotland, the Outer Hebridean islands
are a windswept but beautiful group of low-lying islands. Geologically, they
are almost 3 billion years old, but it is their geomorphological interest that
makes them a classic site. Lying so far from the mainland, they have helped
to determine the extent of the last Scottish ice sheet and have been the subject
of study by many glaciologists including James
Geike.
The islands stretch for almost 200km along a NNE-SSW trend and exhibit many
features of glaciation. The ice sheet was considered to have travelled from
the Scottish Highlands out over the islands.
Loch Druidibeg and its associated catchment and coastline
is part of the largest Machair system in the British isles. Providing one
of the best examples in the Western Isles of a complete
transition of habitats from the western coastal machair system to inland
moorland and blanket bog.
Image provided by SNH.
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