About Mull and Iona

Mull, (Muile or An t-Eilean Muileach in Gaelic) is the second largest of the Inner Hebrides. It lies off the west coast of Scotland, an approx. 45 minutes sail on the ferry from the port of Oban. It is a popular tourist destination, famous for its wildlife as well as its geology!. The Wikipedia entry below gives a lot of good information:

Mull (Wikipedia)


About this Web Site

This web site is the second incarnation of a geology site that was first set up in 2005 but has been extensively revamped. The Island of Mull is world famous for its geology, but good information about it, in any depth, is sparse on the web. This site has several objectives:

• To provide a comprehensive list of interesting geological sites in Mull and the other islands round about and to illustrate the geology by means of photographs. A picture worth a thousand words and all that!

• To provide an up to date list of maps, books, booklets, journals and web sites that deal with the geology - these are listed under the Resources pages. All the important sources of information in one place.

• To  create and maintain a searchable database of scholarly papers on the geology. And also to give a detailed history of geological research in the area

• To build and maintain a list of articles on aspects of the geology that are not found elsewhere. Many of these are by myself or in collaboration with other geologists.

• Finally, geology is fun and Mull is a great place to study it. This site attempts to enable the reader to "read the rocks" and to understand the processes that gave rise to the present landscape.

The author of this site is James Westland MSc (that's me in the picture below) who lives in Tobermory, in the north end of the Island of Mull. I first visited Mull as a geology undergraduate from St Andrews University in 1979, when on a week long field trip based at Scoor House near Bunessan.

I recently completed a Masters by research at Glasgow University, graduating in December 2014. The title of the thesis is "The field relationships and mineral chemistry of mafic and ultramafic intrusions in the Loch Uisg area, Isle of Mull". The project dealt with intrusive igneous rocks in the south-east of the island.

So as you can probably guess, my background is in hard rock, (which is ideal for Mull and Iona as most of it is igneous or metamorphic) but I do enjoy all aspects of geology.

I am  more than happy to be contacted by visiting geologists and will endeavour to answer any questions you might have. Feel free to get a hold of me. I have a passion for geology and love talking about it!


Maybe see you in Mull some day!