The journey the Highlands made to meet you

Many of my guests have travelled a considerable distance to explore the North Highlands, coming from Canada, America, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and across Europe. Their journeys often enter our conversations as we get to know one another, although the place they have come to see has a travelling history of its own. The ground beneath us has crossed the equator, changed continental neighbours and passed through latitudes we associate with very different parts of the world. Guests arrive expecting the Highlands to be waiting for them, without necessarily considering how far the Highlands travelled to get here.

At Knockan Crag, north of Ullapool, I follow the path towards the stone globe with guests who have sufficient time and fitness for the ascent. Along the way, plaques trace Scotland’s changing position, taking us beyond the familiar outline on today’s map. Around 390 million years ago, during the time of the lakes that produced Caithness flagstone, this ground lay roughly 20–25 degrees south of the equator. Think of latitudes crossing southern Africa and Australia today, and you begin to appreciate how far removed that world was from the northern Scotland in which we are walking.

From those southern latitudes, the land eventually moved through the equatorial belt and onwards into the Northern Hemisphere. By Jurassic times, Scotland occupied latitudes comparable with the Mediterranean today, still a considerable distance south of its present position around 58 degrees north. Even measuring only the change in latitude from the Devonian lake country to today’s North Highlands gives us roughly 9,000 kilometres, or 5,600 miles, without attempting to reconstruct every turn along the route. That gives guests something tangible to compare with their own journeys, particularly if they have come from somewhere whose latitude the land once shared.

Standing beside the globe, I find that people who understand continental drift perfectly well can still be captivated by realising that the stones beneath their boots have made that journey. The mountains around us were not carried intact along the route, because the land was repeatedly altered as it travelled, leaving rocks formed in ancient lakes, seas and river systems. For visitors from North America, there is also the unexpected discovery that their destination once belonged to the same continent as home. In the audio blogcast, we follow the journey more closely, exploring how moving land, travelling sand and changing oceans brought the Highlands into their present company.

To learn more, listen to the blogcast or book one of our North Coast Explorer private tours.