Ness of Cullivoe
Also within
Condition (NatureScot)
| Unit | Feature | Condition | Area (ha) | Assessed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| F1 | Moine | Favourable | — | 2013-01-16 |
Climate exposure
This is about exposure to a nationwide pressure this habitat type carries — not a verdict on this site's own management.
Coastal habitats are exposed to sea-level rise and storm erosion. Where hard sea defences sit behind them, there's nowhere landward to retreat to — a squeeze that keeps compressing the habitat no matter how well it's managed.
Geology & landscape
Rock Type: Gneiss
Landscape processes: Coastal
Description
Ness of Cullivoe The Ness of Cullivoe is a small peninsula which projects into Bluemull Sound from the north east of the island of Yell. Most of Yell is composed of rocks which are believed to be related to rocks in northern Scotland known as the Moine. Underlying these are ancient rocks similar to the Lewisian gneiss found in the Western Isles and along the north west coast of Scotland, whilst to the east the rocks forming the western sides of Unst and Fetlar are younger and are correlated with the Dalradian rocks of the southern Highlands of Scotland. All three groups are metamorphic rocks, i.e. rocks which have been altered by intense heat and pressure. The Ness of Cullivoe lies within a geological unit known as the Hascosay Slide -a zone of intensely deformed and sheared rocks, up to a kilometre wide, which marks the boundary between the Moine rocks of Yell and the Dalradian rocks to the east. The Hascosay Slide Zone mainly comprises fine grained, banded blastomylonite; a type of rock produced by intense shearing under very high temperature conditions deep in the Earth’s crust. Caught up within these fine grained rocks are large bodies of coarse grained Lewisian gneiss. The rocks of the Hascosay slide provide important evidence about the geological evolution of Shetland and the formation, around 430 million years ago, of the Caledonian Mountain Belt of Britain and Scandinavia.