The Southern Highlands of Scotland

It's been a while since I wrote an update on the southern highlands and I've learned a lot since I started going there. Nowadays, I know better than to go up in the ice and get stuck. I might have more common sense but I'm still quartz daft.

I was up there on the 27th of December '19, then again in February. I was going to go in March but 2020 happened. Between murder hornets and bat plagues it didn't seem like a good idea to be on any mountains for a few months. I was back in August, then again to show a friend the area in the start of November. 

The November trip was crazy. The water was higher than I had ever seen it. I try not to pick much now because I have enough quartz, but the odd piece still catches my eye.

I have found a fair amount of pyrite up there, as well as garnets, mika schist, rare rutile, lovely smoky, and goethite, which forms on the pyrite to make it black. I only just learned on Brittanica that the goethite forms as a result of weathering iron compounds. It makes sense that it would be there because the mountains are wet. Just all over.

I was at some mines in Spain a few years ago and I am always fascinated by the difference in the hillsides. Our cliffs are craggy and crumbling. Our mountains have bedrock made jagged by streams carving out paths. Spain's mountains aren't like that. They erupt and only spend a few months wet. They crack and dry and crumble in the sun. I always thought it was an interesting comparison.

Quartz crystal

Pyrite with goethite coating

Rutile on Quartz

Garnets in schist 

Remember!

I'm not a geologist and I do this for fun. I really don't know much more than what I pass on to you guys. However, you can join me on Facebook, Instagram and other places if you want to keep an eye on my rock finding adventures.

You can find my old post on this are, in which I got my car stuck up a mountain, here.