Tag Archives: The Cheviot

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The Hawsen Burn

We find plenty of fine-grained granophyric rock but we are not convinced that it really is of the same type as the ‘Evolved’ rock from the summit and north slopes of the Cheviot. Subsequent thin section analysis suggests that it and samples from the Standrop Burn are rather different from the ‘Evolved’ type. However, the Hawsen Burn samples do share the high quartz and low plagioclase content of the ‘Evolved’ rock of the Upper Cheviot area. At any rate, we now feel that there is insufficient evidence to argue that the fine-grained granophyric rocks are all part of a common ring dyke system. They are quite likely to be separate intrusions, some of them representing very late magmatic activity.
We locate a medium-grained but rather altered, pink porphyritic variety at NT 94299 23027 which seems to correspond with varieties found on Dunmoor and Hedgehope Hills.
There is plenty of evidence of altered andesite, hornfelsed by contact with the pluton as we would expect here as the Hawsen Burn runs along the boundary between the two in some places.

Altered yellowish andesite at NT 94504 23011 is stated in some guides to contain massive epidote but there was none in the samples that we thinned.

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Knock Hill and Upper Linhope Burn

Knock Hill (NT 99584 16499) with its attendant gorge is an impressive feature on the road towards Linhope. It is composed of ignimbrite, and gives evidence that the Cheviot volcanic system was explosive, and produced abundant pyroclastic surges and ash fall, as well as andesite lava flows.
The 1” OS geological map notes a ‘hypersthene-porphyrite’ dyke which we locate at NT 99584 16499 on the south side of the Breamish burn, just beyond the road bridge.
From here, a walk to the upper reaches of the Linhope Burn (around NT 94094 17459) and on to the Standrop Burn. (NT 93794 17839) There is a dacite dyke showing in the streambed just above the two burns’ confluence.
The streambed reveals a variety of rock types. The coarse-grained (Standrop) and finer-grained pink (Dunmoor) varieties in evidence. There is also a much finer grained pale rock similar to the ‘evolved’ granophyre from the Cheviot.
According to Al-Hafdh, this is ‘Woolhope’ granite, part of a ring dyke that circles from the upper Standrop Burn area through to the upper Dunmoor Burn area.

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Woolhope Crag and the Cheviot

We go to see if the theory of the darker rocks making tougher landscape features, would hold at Woolhope Crag (NT 92264 22169).
The answer was ambiguous. There is certainly plenty of dioritic rock there but there is also a pale fine-grained granophyric rock. We subsequently made our way up the north slopes of the Cheviot, and found plenty of scattered exposures which revealed more of the granophyric rock. We have classified this type on the map as ‘Evolved’ granite.
Descending from Cheviot summit on the main path for Langlee in the Harthope valley, we found distinct quartz veining with tourmaline content (approx. NT 918 209). There is the possibility that this quartz veining is the result of hydrothermal penetration on lines of weakness between different types of plutonic rock.
We need to pay another visit to investigate this.