Eclogites from the Neighbourhood of Glenelg, Inverness-Shire

Abstract

I. Introduction. References to the occurrence of eclogites in the western Highlands of Scotland are singularly scarce. Teall (1891) described an eclogite from Totaig Ferry, Loch Duich, about 5½ miles north-east of the Kirkton of Glenelg, and he observed that the existence of such a rock in the British Isles did not appear to have been previously recorded. In the Geological Survey memoir which describes sheet 71 of the one-inch map (Clough and others, 1910) many references are made to the occurrence of eclogites and eclogitic rocks near Glenelg. As is explained in the memoir, no general attempt was made to map the margins of these rocks owing to their extremely complicated character. Many of the more important occurrences are described, however, and the areas in which such rocks are most abundant are indicated on the one-inch map. Although the chemical composition of none of the eclogitic rocks was determined, an analysis was made of a garnet from an eclogite near Beinn a9 Chapuill. Reference to the occurrence of eclogites in the Lewisian is made by Harker (1932) and an example from Glenelg is figured. Eclogitic rocks have also been recorded from central Sutherland by Read (1931) and An Cruachan in central Ross-shire (Peach and others, 1913). The Glenelg area, in which the rocks here described occur, is shown in the eastern portion of the one-inch map, sheet 71, and is bounded in the north by Loch Alsh and Loch Duich, in the west by Kyle Rhea and the Sound