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The geology of the Orkney islands in northern Scotland is dominated by the Devonian Old Red Sandstone (ORS). In the southwestern part of Mainland , this sequence can be seen to rest unconformably on a Moinian type metamorphic basement .
The assemblage of monumental Neolithic structures in Orkney is without parallel in the United Kingdom, and the Orkney Mainland provides an entire landscape of features from this period. During this time, complex new societies came to the fore that were a radical departure from the earlier hunter-gatherers and which were capable of creating ...
Yesnaby (historic: Yeskenaby, Yestnaby) is a historic township [1] [2] in Sandwick, on the west coast of Orkney Mainland, Scotland, south of Skara Brae. It is renowned for its spectacular Old Red Sandstone coastal cliff scenery which includes sea stacks , blowholes , geos and frequently boiling seas.
The Yesnaby Sandstone Group is a Devonian lithostratigraphic group (a sequence of rock strata) in west Mainland Orkney, Scotland. The name is derived from the locality of Yesnaby where the strata are exposed in coastal cliffs.
The Group comprises the Upper Eday Sandstone Formation, Eday Marl Formation, Middle Eday Sandstone Formation, Eday Flagstone Formation, Lower Eday Sandstone Formation and the Hoy Sandstone Formation laid down in the shallow Orcadian Basin during the Givetian stage of the Devonian period. The sediments vary from fluvial to lacustrine to lagoonal.
In 1564 Lord Robert Stewart, natural son of James V of Scotland, who had visited Kirkwall twenty-four years before, was made sheriff of Orkney and Shetland, and received possession of the estates of the udallers; in 1581 he was created earl of Orkney by James VI, the charter being ratified ten years later to his son Patrick, but after Patrick's ...
The Dwarfie Stane is the only chambered tomb in Orkney that is cut from stone rather than built from stones [5] and may be the only example of a Neolithic rock-cut tomb in Britain. [6] However, despite its unique construction, its plan is consistent with the so-called Orkney-Cromarty class of chambered tomb found throughout Orkney.
The Old Man of Hoy is a red sandstone stack, perched on a plinth of basalt rock, and one of the tallest sea stacks in the UK. [4] [5] It is separated from the mainland by a 60-metre (200 ft) chasm strewn with debris, and has nearly vertical sides with a top just a few metres wide. [3]