Nature

by Alun ap Rhisiart — last modified Aug 28, 2010 05:56 PM

: Nature Homepage 1

After the ice melted about 9000 years ago, vegetation including woodland quickly became established, and with it a wide variety of animals and birds. As conditions improved, the area became attractive to people. The first travellers would have come by water, as forests, swamps and rivers would have made travel difficult by land.

The Highland fault line runs through the peninsula. To the north of the fault are the Dalriadan rocks, upwards of 500 million years old, and to the south is found the 350 - 400 million years old formation known as the old red sandstone. Clay, passing sometimes into chlorite slate or mica slate, is the prevailing rock.

: Nature Homepage 2

The main part of the peninsula is a continuous ridge, which, from the shores of the Gare Loch and Loch Long, and the Firth of Clyde, rises to 717 feet at Tamnahara or Cnoc na h-Airidhe, 645 to the E of Peaton, 651 at Clach Mackenny, and 414 at the Gallowhill. The greater part of the ridge is a tableland, waste or pastoral, with swells commanding gorgeous views of the hill-flanks of the Clyde, together with the northern screen of the Gare Loch and the Duke of Argyll's Bowling Green.

: Nature Homepage 3

The peninsula’s climate is affected by warming effects of the gulf stream, which make it mild but also brings rain. Since land use on the peninsula is not particularly intensive, being generally used for sheep and cattle grazing and for commercial forestry, a wide variety of higher and lower plant life is to be found here, along with a wide range of animals and birds.

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