Lintmill Railway Cutting

Also within

Berwickshire County

Condition (NatureScot)

Geology & landscape

Geological Feature: Rock Outcrop · Geological Period: Carboniferous

Landscape processes: Volcanic / Igneous

Description

Lintmill Railway Cutting Lintmill Railway Cutting Site of Special Scientific interest (SSSI) is located approximately 3 km east of the town of Greenlaw, Berwickshire. The SSSI contains exposures of volcanic lava both in the disused railway cutting and along the adjacent banks of the Blackadder Water. The association of Lower Carboniferous volcanic rocks, traditionally known as the ‘Kelso Traps’, resemble those of Kintyre and East Lothian (ankaramitic basalts, hawaiites, mugearites, benmoreites and trachytes – all varieties of volcanic lava) but form a distinct and separate outcrop thought to be closely associated with early geological development of the lower Tweed area. The rocks exposed in Lintmill Railway Cutting, which are taken as representative of the Kelso Traps, are regarded as being broadly similar to the Birrenswark Volcanic group and the more extensive volcanic fields of the Midland Valley. The importance of this site lies in its apparent geographical independence from both these groups. The site is of potential research interest for comparative studies of other Lower Carboniferous volcanic sequences in the UK and in providing evidence relating to the early geological development of north-west Britain during the Permo-Carboniferous Period some 280 million years ago.