Earth and Environment Atlas

How The Planet Works
Sign In
Text size
100%
Theme
Geological Formations

Beinn Eighe

Inselbergs and Crystalline Monoliths

Citation Formats

General Reference

APA Style

BibTeX

Beinn Eighe is a mountain massif in the Torridon area of Wester Ross, in Scotland's Northwest Highlands, south of Loch Maree, with its highest point, Ruadh-stac Mor, reaching 1,010 meters. Like its neighbors it stands on a foundation of ancient Lewisian gneiss overlaid by Precambrian Torridonian sandstone, but its summit ridge is capped by pale Cambrian quartzite, laid down around 540 million years ago as pure white sand under a warm tropical sea. That hard, brittle cap gives Beinn Eighe's peaks a distinctive light color that can be mistaken for snow, setting it apart from the darker sandstone summits around it.

Comments (0)
No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.
Reader Challenges (0 open reader challenges)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.

View At A Past Year

The atlas records no dated fact of its own for this entry, so there is no other year to choose.