Siccar Point

Siccar Point is a rocky promontory in the county of Berwickshire on the east coast of Scotland. It is famous in the history of geology for Hutton's Unconformity found in 1788, which James Hutton regarded as conclusive proof of his uniformitarian theory of geological development.

Siccar Point
The point seen from the west
Location in the Scottish Borders
Coordinates55°55′54″N 2°18′03″W

History
St. Helen's Chapel.

Siccar Point was the site of a dun, or small hill fort, in the territory of the ancient Britons.

Siccar Point is now in the parish of Cockburnspath but was formerly in the parish of Old Cambus, from which the ancient parish church of St Helen's Chapel survives as a ruin about one kilometre to the west of the point. The church is built in a Romanesque style, in a mixture of Old Red Sandstone believed to have been quarried from the nearby Greenheugh Bay and of the greywacke rock also used in the drystone dyke forming the field boundaries. It is likely that the medieval village of Old Cambus was nearer to Siccar Point than the extant hamlet of Old Cambus.

To the south of the point twentieth-century quarrying for greywacke to be used as roadstone left a hollow named Old Cambus Quarry which is now occupied by a vegetable distribution warehouse complex.[1]

Hutton's Unconformity
The rugged point shows gently sloping beds of red sandstone above vertical beds of greywacke, forming a classic example of Hutton's Unconformity.
Main article: Hutton's Unconformity

Siccar Point is notable in the history of geology as a result of a boat trip in 1788 in which geologist James Hutton observed the angular unconformity of the point. He wrote later that the evidence of the rocks provided conclusive proof of the uniformitarian theory of geological development; that is, that the natural laws and processes which operate in the universe have never changed and apply everywhere.

See also

References
  1. Cliff Ford (2 September 2003). "Siccar Point: Safety". Field Excursion Preview. University of Edinburgh School of GeoSciences. Retrieved 2008-10-20.
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