Sir Archibald Geikie (1835-1924) and the "Highlands Controversy": New Archival Sources for the History of British Geology in the Nineteenth Century

Abstract

With the help of new archival material relating to Archibald Geikie, discovered fairly recently at the Haslemere Educational Museum, some revisions are offered to my account of the "Highlands Controversy" (relating to the structure of the Northwest Highlands of Scotland), published in 1990.1 Also further light is thrown on the so-called "Archaean Controversy," especially with regard to the debates about the rocks at St. David's, Pembrokeshire. It is shown that Geikie did visit the north coast of Scotland before 1884, but made no observations there that had a bearing on the Highlands Controversy. He was, however, well prepared for a change of mind before he actually examined the rocks at Loch Eriboll in 1884. It appears that Geikie's chief "bête noire" was the petrologist Thomas Bonney, and to a lesser extent Charles Callaway. Some new information about Edward Greenly is revealed, and also the procedures of the Wharton Committee which looked into the affairs of the Survey in 1900, and led to Geikie's retirement.