Lochranza Castle (5 of 5)
The headland on the right side of the bay I called Newton Point.  It is something of a geological Mecca!  In 1787, James Hutton, a Scotsman and the man considered to be the father of modern geology, identified an 'unconformity' here!  

What's an 'unconformity'? 

Well let's say that a series of rocks are laid down in water, in numerical order 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.  Then, these rocks are thrust back upwards again, and erosion removes layers 5 and 4.  Later still, everything drops below the waves again and new layers get laid down - 6, 7 and 8.  Much later again, when the whole sequence of rocks are above sea level again, a geologist comes along and discovers layers 8, 7, 6, 3, 2 and 1.  The point where 6 is lying on 3 (because 5 and 4 were eroded away earlier), is an unconformity, which can tell geologists a lot about what was going on at the time.  If, in the process of getting pushed up and down, layers 1, 2 and 3 also got tipped over at an angle before 6, 7 and 8 got laid down horizontally on top of them, the unconformity becomes strikingly obvious - which is what first drew Hutton's eye to them. 
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