CHAPTER 7
Area 2: Southern Borders
AREA 2 COVERS THE CENTRAL PART of the Southern Uplands, sandwiched between Areas 1 (Galloway) and 5 (Edinburgh) (Fig. 57). It straddles the southern part of the English–Scottish border, extending from Annandale and Moffatdale in the west to the Cheviot Hills in the east (Fig. 58). The discussion provided here is restricted to features on the Scottish side of the border.
In the northern half of the Area, the River Teviot drains the relatively low-lying ground of Teviotdale, which in turn feeds into the larger Tweed Basin of Area 5 (Chapter 2, Fig. 7). Teviotdale is bounded to the east by the Cheviot Hills and to the west by the Moffat Hills of the Southern Uplands. These rounded hills reach heights of over 800 m, and form a broad region of elevated ground which dominates the landscape in the northwestern part of this Area. The Solway Firth with its adjacent low-lying plains is the main feature of the southwestern corner of Area 2, along with the broad valleys of the Annan and Esk, which penetrate northwards into the hills of the Southern Uplands.
FIG 57. Location map for Area 2.
FIG 58. Natural and man-made features of Area 2.
STORIES FROM THE BEDROCK
Area 2 is principally made up of hard Ordovician and Silurian sediments, which are also the oldest rocks in the Area (Figs 59, 60). These sandstones (greywackes), siltstones and shales were deposited between around 490 and 420 million years ago on the floor of the extensive Iapetus Ocean that, during this time, formed an Atlantic-scale ocean with Scotland and England on opposite margins. Around 490 million years ago, this ocean began to become smaller, as oceanic crust became subducted beneath the Grampian Highlands, and the Ordovician and Silurian sediments were scraped off the ocean floor and stacked up in a pile against the Midland Valley (Fig. 28). This deformation created a fold system across the uplands of this Area, with the fold axes trending northeast to southwest. Superimposed on this larger structure are countless minor parallel folds, which give a ‘grain’ to the oldest bedrock of the Area. During these movements, the sediments were altered to brittle sandstones and slates.
FIG 59. Simplified geology and hill-shaded topography for Area 2.
By the Devonian (around 410 million years ago), the major uplift and deformation of the Southern Uplands had ceased and the crustal materials of what are now Scotland and England became ‘welded’ along the Iapetus Suture. The mountainous ground of the Southern Uplands then began to be eroded, and large rivers flowed across the Area, depositing sandstones, siltstones and occasional conglomerates on lower-lying plains fringing the mountains. This Area lay in the interior of a large continent, and sediments accumulated on river flood plains where oxidising conditions led to the deposits being stained with red iron oxide. These Devonian sediments were deposited on the eroded surface of older, deformed Silurian and Ordovician rocks. This surface was far from uniform – in places, it had a relief of elevation of over 100 m. As a result, the thickness of the Devonian sediments varies from place to place, in part reflecting the fact that these river sediments were filling hollows in the topography. These deposits, collectively termed the Old Red Sandstone, today underlie a sizeable area just west of the Cheviot Hills.
FIG 60.Timeline of bedrock and surface-layer events in Area 2.
The early Devonian was also a time of igneous activity, and Devonian igneous rocks are often associated with interesting landscape features in Area 2. The largest area underlain by Devonian igneous bedrock is the Cheviot Hills in the northeast. Here, great thicknesses of sub-horizontal lava flows (predominantly mafic andesite) rest unconformably on Silurian marine sediments. This lava was extruded from an igneous centre that today straddles the border between Scotland and England. The centre experienced several stages of igneous activity: an initially explosive volcano was followed by a large out-pouring of lava, which today, after erosion, covers around 600 km2 of the Earth’s surface. This large area of lava was then intruded at depth by felsic granite, which after millions of years of erosion has been exhumed and today underlies the highest part of the Cheviot Hills, over the border in England. Elsewhere in the Area, much smaller Devonian volcanic vents and intrusions are relatively common.
By the start of the Carboniferous, around 360 million years ago, the Caledonian Mountains had been largely eroded, although the Southern Uplands still formed a considerable upland area. Throughout the following 60 million years of the Carboniferous, deposition in this Area occurred mostly in the lowlands of the Solway Firth Basin and along the border with England. Marine and coastal plain environments dominated, although varying relative sea levels resulted in the deposition of a variety of sediments, including limestones, sandstones, mudstones and coal. The Carboniferous sediments near Glencartholm, just south of Langholm (Fig. 58), contain one of the richest Carboniferous fish faunas in Great Britain, and indeed in the world. The site is remarkable for the number of species of fish discovered, around 35, several of which are unique to the site. Some Carboniferous to Permian-aged igneous rocks are also found in this Area, generally in the form of small intrusions of coarser-grained rock.
By the end of the Carboniferous, Scotland had drifted northwards from the equator and the climate became more arid. Throughout the Permian (between 290 and 250 million years ago), red desert siltstones, sandstones and conglomerates were again deposited by winds and rivers. Fossils are not particularly common, but at Locharbriggs, just northeast of Dumfries, numerous reptile footprints have been discovered, generally heading in a southwards direction (very possibly towards the nearest source of water, in the Solway Firth Basin). The hot and arid climate of the Permian continued into the Triassic, and boulders, pebbles and sands continued to be washed and blown from the higher ground of the Southern Uplands down into sedimentary basins in the south and west of Area 2. These Triassic units tend to be mostly red, yellow and brown mottled sandstones, and comprise the Sherwood Sandstone Group. Together, both Permian and Triassic units make up the New Red Sandstone Supergroup.
In this Area, the New Red Sandstone was deposited in a series of basins, preserved in what are today the valleys of Nithsdale and the lower part of Annandale. These basins generally have a north-northwest/south-southeast trend, broadly perpendicular to the regional Caledonian trend. The Dumfries and Lochmaben basins are fault-bounded, and gravity studies suggest that Permian strata in these basins reach thicknesses of over 1000 m. They are flanked to the south by the much larger Solway Firth Basin, whose axis overlies the Iapetus Suture. The basement of this large basin is made up of tightly folded Ordovician and Silurian strata, overlain by up to 6 km of Devonian to Lower Jurassic fill.
No Mesozoic rocks are preserved in Area 2, although they would certainly have been present once: by the end of the Cretaceous, the sea had risen to cover all but the highest topography then present in