River North Esk

The River North Esk fieldtrip starts at Gannochy Bridge, at the entrance to the popular Blue Door Walk on the Burn estate, approximately 30miles south of Aberdeen.

The section is comprised of early Devonian Lower Old Red Sandstone rocks and Siluro-Ordovician rocks of the Highland Border Complex, and is very different in character to the more commonly visited Highland Boundary Fault section at Stonehaven.

The spectacular exposures are exposed along the river side and on this trip can be examined in around 3 hours. Some parts of the section require some scrambling down low river cliff paths to access, although trips can be tailored to individual needs.

The Old Red Sandstone sedimentary rocks exposed in the North Esk consist of sandstones with rare conglomerates  which were deposited by large river systems. These beds are highly tilted by a regional fold, the Strathmore Syncline.

The base of the Devonian section is represented by a thin volcanic ash horizon. The Highland Border Complex consists of shallow marine, deep marine and ocean-floor sedimentary and volcanic rocks and is intensely deformed.

Geological interpretations of this section remain controversial after 200 years of study, and are key to unravelling the geological history of Scotland..