Lochaber, Highlands, Scotland

These glaciated slabs are found 4km west of Glenfinnan in the Scottish Highlands. The site lies only a short distance above the road (NM 858 814), but is not visible to motorists travelling west on the Road to the Isles. 

However, a short climb up the hillside from a large layby soon leads to a wonderful display of glaciated slabs.

The metamorphic rocks here consist of interbanded psammites and pelites belonging to the Glenfinnan Group.

They have been strongly deformed and some superb folding and pull-apart structures are clearly visible.The rocks are also cut by wide veins of pegmatite with obvious large crystals of mica. 

Although these Moine rocks are extremely old, they also show clear evidence of much more recent sculpting by glaciers. 

The slabs have the typical profile of a roche moutonnée, with a scraped and smoothed eastern flank and a much steeper western face – confirming that the ice here travelled from east to west.

Text courtesy of Stephen Beard, Lochaber Geopark