Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 May 2009
A study of the geological history of a small dioritic mass near Gairloch has revealed the presence of rock types and structural elements not represented in most of the Lewisian of the district. Coarse grained diorite, showing intrusive relations to granulitic rocks of possible sedimentary derivation, has been foliated and subsequently intruded by microdiorite during pre-Laxfordian episodes. The Little Sand mass has subsequently been involved, probably as a thrust slice of basement, in the sequence of Laxfordian (about 1,500 m.y.) structural and metamorphic episodes which affected the more common Lewisian metasediments and metabasites.