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Dalradian is a geological
Geology

Geology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitute the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structural geology, physical properties, dynamics, and History of the Earth of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed....
 term that describes a series of metamorphic rock
Metamorphic rock

Metamorphic rock is the result of the transformation of an existing rock type, the protolith, in a process called metamorphism, which means "change in form"....
s, typically developed in the high ground which lies southeast of the Great Glen
Great Glen

The Great Glen , also known as Glen Albyn or Glen More is a series of glens in Scotland running 100 kilometres from Inverness on the Moray Firth to Fort William, Highland at the head of Loch Linnhe....
 of Scotland
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
. This was the old Celtic
Celt

Celts , is a modern term used to describe any of the European peoples who spoke, or speak, a Celtic languages. The term is also used in a wider sense to describe the Modern Celts of those peoples, notably those who participate in a Celtic culture....
 region of Dál Riata
Dál Riata

D?l Riata was a Gaels overkingdom on the western seaboard of Scotland with some territory on the northern coasts of Ireland. In the late 6th and early 7th century it encompassed roughly what is now Argyll and Bute and Lochaber in Scotland and also County Antrim in Northern Ireland....
 (Dalriada), and in 1891 Sir A. Geikie proposed the name Dalradian as a convenient provisional designation for the complicated set of rocks to which it is difficult to assign a definite position in the stratigraphical sequence.

In Sir A.






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Dalradian is a geological
Geology

Geology is the science and study of the solid and liquid matter that constitute the Earth. The field of geology encompasses the study of the composition, structural geology, physical properties, dynamics, and History of the Earth of Earth materials, and the processes by which they are formed, moved, and changed....
 term that describes a series of metamorphic rock
Metamorphic rock

Metamorphic rock is the result of the transformation of an existing rock type, the protolith, in a process called metamorphism, which means "change in form"....
s, typically developed in the high ground which lies southeast of the Great Glen
Great Glen

The Great Glen , also known as Glen Albyn or Glen More is a series of glens in Scotland running 100 kilometres from Inverness on the Moray Firth to Fort William, Highland at the head of Loch Linnhe....
 of Scotland
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
. This was the old Celtic
Celt

Celts , is a modern term used to describe any of the European peoples who spoke, or speak, a Celtic languages. The term is also used in a wider sense to describe the Modern Celts of those peoples, notably those who participate in a Celtic culture....
 region of Dál Riata
Dál Riata

D?l Riata was a Gaels overkingdom on the western seaboard of Scotland with some territory on the northern coasts of Ireland. In the late 6th and early 7th century it encompassed roughly what is now Argyll and Bute and Lochaber in Scotland and also County Antrim in Northern Ireland....
 (Dalriada), and in 1891 Sir A. Geikie proposed the name Dalradian as a convenient provisional designation for the complicated set of rocks to which it is difficult to assign a definite position in the stratigraphical sequence.

In Sir A. Geikie's words, "they consist in large proportion of altered sedimentary strata, now found in the form of mica
Mica

The mica group of sheet silicate minerals includes several closely related materials having highly perfect basal cleavage. All are monoclinic with a tendency towards pseudo-hexagonal crystals and are similar in chemical composition....
-schist
Schist

The schists form a group of Erins metamorphic rocks, chiefly notable for the preponderance of lamellar minerals such as micas, Chlorite group, talc, hornblende, graphite, and others....
, graphite
Graphite

The mineral graphite is one of the allotropes of carbon. It was named by Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1789 from the Greek language ??afe?? : "to draw/write", for its use in pencils, where it is commonly called lead, as distinguished from the actual metallic element lead....
-schist, andalusite
Andalusite

Andalusite is an aluminium Silicate minerals mineral with the chemical formula Al2SiO5.The variety chiastolite commonly contains dark inclusions of carbon or clay which form a checker-board pattern when shown in cross-section....
-schist, phyllite
Phyllite

Phyllite is a type of Foliation metamorphic rock primarily composed of quartz, sericite mica, and Chlorite group; the rock represents a gradiation in the degree of metamorphism between slate and mica schist....
, schistose grit, greywacke
Greywacke

Greywacke is a variety of sandstone generally characterized by its hardness, dark color, and poorly-sorted, angular grains of quartz, feldspar, and small rock fragments set in a compact, clay-fine matrix....
 and conglomerate
Conglomerate (geology)

A conglomerate is a Rock consisting of individual stones that have become cemented together. Conglomerates are sedimentary rocks consisting of rounded fragments and are thus differentiated from breccias, which consist of angular clasts....
, quartzite
Quartzite

Quartzite is a hard metamorphic rock which was originally sandstone. Sandstone is converted into quartzite through heating and pressure usually related to tectonics compression within orogeny....
, limestone
Limestone

File:Limestone Formation In Waitomo.jpgLimestone is a sedimentary rock composed largely of the mineral calcite . The deposition of limestone strata is often a by-product and indicator of biological activity in the geology record....
 and other rocks, together with epidiorites, chlorite
Chlorite

The chlorite ion is ClO2-. A chlorite is a compound that contains this group,with chlorine in oxidation state +3....
-schists, hornblende
Hornblende

Hornblende is a complex silicate minerals series of minerals. Hornblende is not a recognized mineral in its own right, but the name is used as a general or field term, to refer to a dark amphibole....
 schists and other allied varieties, which probably mark sills
Sill (geology)

In geology, a sill is a tabular pluton that has Intrusion between older stratum of sedimentary rock, beds of volcanic lava or tuff, or even along the direction of Foliation in metamorphic rock....
, lava
Lava

Lava is molten Rock expelled by a volcano during an eruption. When first expelled from a volcanic vent, it is a liquid at temperatures from 700 ?C to 1,200 ?C ....
-sheets or beds of tuff
Tuff

Tuff is a type of Rock consisting of consolidated volcanic ash ejected from vents during a volcanic eruption. Tuff is also sometimes called tufa, particularly when used as construction material....
, intercalated among the sediments. The total thickness of this assemblage of rocks must be many thousand feet." The Dalradian series includes the "Eastern or Younger schists" of eastern Sutherland
Sutherland

Sutherland is a registration county, Lieutenancy areas of Scotland and historic administrative Counties of Scotland of Scotland. It is now within the Highland Council areas of Scotland....
, Ross-shire
Ross-shire

Ross-shire, or the County of Ross, is a former Counties of Scotland of Scotland. The county bordered on Sutherland, Cromartyshire , Inverness-shire and an exclave of Nairnshire....
 and Inverness-shire
Inverness-shire

Inverness-shire also known as the county of Inverness, or Siorrachd Inbhir Nis in Scottish Gaelic, was a general purpose Counties of Scotland of Scotland, with the burgh of Inverness as the county town, until 1975, when, under the Local Government Act 1973, the county area was divided for Local government in Scotland purposes between th...
, the Moine gneiss
Gneiss

Gneiss is a common and widely distributed type of Rock formed by high-grade regional metamorphic rock processes from pre-existing formations that were originally either igneous rock or Sedimentary rock rocks....
, as well as the metamorphosed igneous and sedimentary rock
Sedimentary rock

Sedimentary rock is one of the three main Rock types . Sedimentary rock is formed by deposition and consolidation of mineral and organic material and from precipitation of minerals from solution....
s of the central, eastern and southwestern Scottish Highlands
Scottish Highlands

The Scottish Highlands include the rugged and mountainous regions of Scotland north and west of the Highland Boundary Fault, although the exact boundaries are not clearly defined, particularly to the east....
. The series has been traced into the northwestern counties of Ireland
Ireland

Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
. The whole of the Dalradian complex has suffered intense crushing and thrusting.