North West Highlands Geopark

The North West Highlands Geopark is a geopark in the Scottish Highlands. Awarded UNESCO geopark status in 2004, it was Scotland's first geopark, featuring some of the oldest rocks in Europe, around 3,000 million years old. The park contains many notable geological features, such as the Moine Thrust Belt and Smoo Cave and covers an area of around 2,000 square kilometres (770 sq mi).

The park is located in the extreme north-west of Scotland and includes parts of Sutherland and Wester Ross, including Cape Wrath. The area is one of the most sparsely inhabited in Europe, and is largely treeless. The park's eastern boundary generally follows the Moine Thrust Belt, otherwise the park is generally bounded by the north and west coasts of Scotland, with a few islands included in the park, such as the Summer Isles.

The Moine Thrust Belt was formed between 430 and 500 million years ago. The belt includes Precambrian Moine rocks which have been pushed on top of younger Cambrian and Ordovician rocks, much to the surprise of Victorian geologists. A debate ensued between prominent geologists of the time. Roderick Murchison and Archibald Geikie argued that the Moine rocks must in fact be younger than the rocks beneath them, a point of view opposed by James Nicol and Charles Lapworth. The controversy was resolved by Ben Peach and John Horne who found that the Moine rocks had been pushed some 70 kilometres east over the top of the younger rocks by tectonic action. This was the first thrust fault to be discovered. A monument to the pair is located within the park. Its inscription reads: To Ben N Peach and John Horne who played the foremost part in unravelling the geological structure of the North West Highlands 1883–1897. An international tribute. Erected 1980. The fault can be seen most easily at a line of cliffs named Knockan Crag. This crag is where the Moine is where the apparent anomaly in the ages of the rocks was first seen, and is where the thrust belt was first identified. A visitor's centre is located here, as well as several pieces of sculpture created by modern artists.

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