Bill H. Jenkins

Sir James Hall’s house

History of Geology Comments Off

Jul 252016

128 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 4JZ

Sir James Hall was a important champion of the theories of James Hutton. He was with Hutton when he discovered his famous unconformity at Siccar Point in the Scottish Borders. Hall played a major role in the debate between the disciples of Hutton (Plutonists) and those of the German geologist Abraham Gottlob Werner (Neptunians). Starting in 1798, he conducted a series of experiments to prove the Huttonian principle that the earth’s internal heat played an vital role in rock formation. These involved making artificial marble by subjecting powdered chalk to intense heat and pressure.

The ground floor Sir James Hall’s house is now a Wetherspoon pub.

Hutton’s famous unconformity, Jedburgh. Two layers of rocks can be seen lying at different angles one on top of the other.

Archibald Geikie’s house

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Jul 252016

Ramsay Gardens, Castle Hill, Edinburgh EH1 2NA

Collaborating with Roderick Murchison, Archibald Geikie produced the first geological map of Scotland in 1862 while working for the Geological Survey of Great Britain. He went on to become the first professor of geology and mineralogy at the University of Edinburgh from 1871 to 1881 and then head of the Geological Survey in 1881. He published widely on subjects as diverse as glacial drift (1863), the scenery of Scotland (1865) and the extinct volcanoes of Britain (1897). In 1976 he had a ridge on the Moon, Dorsa Geikie, named after him.

No public access.

Portrait of Sir Archibald Geikie (1835-1924), 1913.

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John Playfair memorial

History of Astronomy, History of Geology, Scottish Enlightenment Comments Off

Jul 252016

Memorial to John Playfair on Calton Hill

38 Calton Hill, Edinburgh, EH7 5AA

Mathematician, physicist and geologist, John Playfair is perhaps best known as James Hutton’s most influential disciple. His Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth (1802) probably did more to popularise his theory than Hutton’s own notoriously impenetrable writings. In his career he was consecutively professor of mathematics and professor of natural philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. As first president of Edinburgh Astronomical Institution he enthusiastically supported the construction of Edinburgh’s observatory on Calton Hill, which his monument stands beside, but sadly died before its completion.

Portrait of John Playfair by Henry Raeburn.

Portrait of John Playfair (1748-1819) by Henry Raeburn.

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University of Edinburgh, Our History: John Playfair (1748–1819)

Grave of John Walker

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Jul 252016

Canongate Kirkyard, 153 Canongate, Edinburgh EH8 8BN

John Walker was the University of Edinburgh’s second professor of natural history from 1779 to 1803, but the first to take his teaching responsibilities seriously. Walker was primarily a mineralogist and had little time for speculative theories of the earth. He was also an enemy of evolutionary speculation and described the transmutation of species in his lectures as ‘a vulgar error’. He took his students on regular field trips and held tutorials in the University’s natural history museum, of which he was also the keeper. In both of these practices he was followed by his successor, Robert Jameson.

The Rev. Dr John Walker (1731-1803), from the frontispiece from a volume of the Naturalists Library (1842).

Inscription on John Walker’s gravestone.

Hutton’s Section, Salisbury Crags

History of Geology 2 Responses »

Jul 252016

Radical Road, Edinburgh EH8 8AL

At this site James Hutton found proof for his theory that heat plays an essential role in rock formation. He believed that a band of molten rock had been injected into older strata long after the formation of the surrounding rock. During Charles Darwin’s time as a medical student in Edinburgh in 1825-7 he accompanied the professor of natural history, Robert Jameson, on a field trips to Salisbury Crags. Darwin later recalled being deeply unimpressed by Jameson’s explanation that these intrusive rocks had been deposited from above by precipitation from the sea rather than injected as magma from below.

A plaque at the site give some interesting information on its history and significance.

Caricature of James Hutton (1726-97).

Plaque at Hutton’s Section.

Charles Darwin (1809–82).

Portrait of Robert Jameson (1774–1854) by one of his students, c.1831.

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Site of the offices of the Witness

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Jul 252016

297 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1YJ

Hugh Miller was one of the most remarkable figures in 19th-century Scotland. At this address between 1840 and 1856, Miller edited the Witness, the newspaper of the Free Church of Scotland. It was in the Witness that he first serialised many of his geological works, including The Old Red Sandstone (1841). Having started his working life as a stonemason, this self-educated geologist went on the make important contributions to palaeontology. In particular, he was a pioneer of paleoecology. A fierce opponent of evolution on religious grounds, and plagued by mental-health problems, he tragically took his own life in 1856.

No public access.

Hugh Miller (1802-56), by Robert Adamson and Octavius Hill, 1843.

Hugh Miller Plaque at the former offices of the Witness newspaper.

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The Friends of Hugh Miller

Giant Irish Elk, National Museum of Scotland

History of Geology 4 Responses »

Jul 252016

National Museum of Scotland, Chambers St, Edinburgh EH1 1JF

The magnificent skeleton of this extinct beast was added to the collection of Edinburgh University’s natural history museum in 1821 by Robert Jameson. It is not in fact a close relative of modern elks, but is a species of extinct giant deer. The skeleton was discovered in a bog in Ballaugh on the Isle of Man, and brought to Edinburgh through the efforts of the Duke of Atholl. This remarkable creature was at the centre of early debates on extinction. The great French geologist, Georges Cuvier, famously used it as an example of a species that was now completely extinct.

Giant Irish Elk, from the George Cuvier's Theory of the Earth(1827), edited by Robert Jameson.

Giant Irish Elk, from George Cuvier’s Theory of the Earth (1827), edited by Robert Jameson.

Commemorative pillars, the Meadows

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Jul 252016

The Meadows, Melville Drive, Edinburgh EH3 9EX

These two commemorative pillars were erected in 1886 by the Master Builder and Operative Masons of Edinburgh for the International Exhibition of that year. The blocks of stone from which the pillars are constructed represent stones from the different quarries which supplied Edinburgh in the 19th century. The names of the quarry from which it was extracted is carved on each stone. After well over 100 years, the different weathering qualities of the stones are evident.

Inscriptions giving the names of the quarries where the stones originated from one of the commemorative pillars in the Meadows.

James Geikie’s house

History of Geology Comments Off

Jul 252016

16 Duncan Street, Edinburgh EH9 1SR

James Geikie was professor of geology and mineralogy at the University of Edinburgh from 1882 to 1914, succeeding his brother Archibald Geikie in the chair. He had previously worked for the Geological Survey since 1861. His fame rests largely on his work on the ice ages of the Pleistocene epoch. He developed the hypothesis that there had been five interglacial periods between the ice ages. In his The Great Ice Age and its Relation to the Antiquity of Man (1874) he proposed that humanity had continued to inhabit Europe throughout the ice ages.

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University of Edinburgh, Information Services: James Geikie, Geology and History

National Museums of Scotland

History of Science, Natural History, Technology Comments Off

Apr 192016

Chambers Street, Edinburgh EH1 1JF

The oldest part of the building that houses the National Museum of Scotland was called the Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art when it was opened by Prince Albert in 1866. Construction had began in 1861 and work was to continue on the first phase of the building until 1888. It was renamed the Royal Scottish Museum in 1904 and became the National Museum of Scotland in 2004. Initially much of the collection came from the University of Edinburgh’s natural history collection, which had become too big for the University’s own museum in what is now the Talbot Rice Gallery.

Free entry, although some temporary exhibitions may charge.

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National Museum of Scotland

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New Curious Edinburgh tours

See our new Edinburgh & America tour showcasing relationships with the United States, developed by Graeme Cruickshank.

We are also working on the development of coastal trails, in collaboration with Traveltech for Scotland and the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Young Academy Scotland’s Coastal Knowledge map. Check out our birding trail or go swimming with our tidal pool tour.

We recently launched the following tours:

History of Witchcraft in Edinburgh during an event at the Edinburgh Futures Institute.

a new tour featuring locations in Edinburgh connected to important women scientists working in a wide range of STEM fields on International Women’s Day.

the Second World War tour developed by academics from the schools of Social and Political Science and History, Classics and Archeology.