Lotto cash secured for geo heritage project

SCOTLAND’S Earth Heritage will be celebrated during the Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology 2017, thanks to a new project funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Visitors flock to sites such as Ben Nevis, Glen Coe and Staffa for their beauty, but these places, and other less well-known sites can also tell us a lot about how the Earth was formed and how it has changed over hundreds of millions of years.

The Earth Heritage Project will promote 50 places across Scotland where people can experience the beauty and diversity of Scotland’s landscape while discovering the fascinating stories behind it.

A Scotland-wide Geoheritage Festival will take place in October 2017, incorporating a launch of the project resources at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh.

Scotland’s geodiversity is world- class: shaped during some three billion years of our planet’s history by the movements of the Earth’s tectonic plates, mountain building, volcanism, ice ages, sea-level change and the processes of erosion and deposition. It is no coincidence that the science of geology was born in Scotland, when the 18th century thinker James Hutton carried out pioneering research on the rocks around him and discovered that Earth was far, far older than anyone had imagined.

This project will ensure that the widest possible audience can enjoy this aspect of our shared Scottish heritage.

The project is being led by the Scottish Geodiversity Forum – a nationwide voluntary association of geological, educational and tourism groups – along with Scotland’s UNESCO Global Geoparks.