VII. The Geology of the Lugton Valley

Abstract

The valley through which the Lugton water flows is situated in the northern part of Ayrshire, with a small portion of its upper end in Renfrewshire, and comprises parts of the parishes of Neilston, Beith, Dunlop, Stewarton, and Kilwinning. It runs S.W., and is 13 miles in length, with an average width of nearly 2 miles. To the E. lie the parallel valleys of the Glazart and the Annick, and on its W. those of the Dusk and the Garnock. With the exception of a few patches of peat moss, the district is a rich agricultural one, long famous for the excellence of its dairy produce. It contains no towns, and except in the hamlets of Ouplawmoor, Lugton, Burnhouse, Auchentiber, and Toranyard, and the mining villages of Doura, Bensley, and Fergushill, the population is mostly confined to its numerous well-appointed farm steadings. The mansions of Caldwell, Montgreenan, and Eglinton Castle with their surrounding woods and policies give a pleasing variety to the landscape, which is otherwise generally plain and unadorned. The lowest rock in the valley consists of beds belonging to the upper member of the trappean series which forms the highlands of Renfrewshire, and stretches across its confines into Ayr and Lanark. These are made up of a variety of bedded basalts, melaphyres, and porphyrites, with occasional bands and beds of fine tuff and coarse volcanic agglomerate. Sometimes sandstones, shales, and thin impure limestones are seen. When continuous they are fringed with a border of ash-like strata, upon which This 250-word extract was created in the absence of an abstract