St Abbs trip - Siccar Point

Siccar Point is notable in the history of geology as a result of a boat trip in 1788 in which geologist James Hutton observed the angular unconformity of the point. He wrote later that the evidence of the rocks - gently sloping beds of red sandstone above vertical beds of greywacke - were conclusive proof of the uniformitarian theory of geological development; that is, that the natural laws and processes which operate in the universe have never changed and apply everywhere. In respect of its great importance to the development of geoscience, this locality was included by the International Union of Geological Sciences as the first of 100 'geological heritage sites' around the world.