Craig Varr

Craig Varr

Why is it there? Is it worth going to see?

Craig Varr is the prominent crag that juts out from Beinn a Chuallaich to the north east of Kinloch Rannoch. How did it get there?

Well, first came the sediment, brought by rivers to an ancient sea bed to form a thick layer of mud. When we say ancient here we mean REALLY REALLY REALLY old, back in what geologists like to call DEEP TIME. It was about 600 million years ago. Our species, Homo sapiens, is not considered older than about 750,000 years. We are an evolutionary afterthought that’s been around for the blink of an evolutionary eyelid. The Earth itself is 4.5 billion years old.

We should look at the rocks of Craig Varr with respect. They are venerable. When muds get compressed by the weight of sediment above they become clay, which is a sedimentary rock, but there are no sedimentary rocks on Craig Varr so what happened?

What happened was the movement of the Earth’s tectonic plates. The globe is made up of plates constantly moving around - not particularly rapidly, something like the speed of growing finger nails. Nevertheless, when you are dealing with DEEP TIME that is enough to build mountains.

Between 490 and 390 million years ago (in the Ordovician and Devonian geological periods) there was something called the Caledonian Orogeny. An orogeny is a mountain building process, which happens when the Earth’s tectonic plates collide and the edges get squashed and fold up.

Fold up sounds quite gentle but this wasn’t!

In this particular orogeny three land masses Laurentia, Avalonia and Baltic collided and in doing so they obliterated an entire ocean called the Iapetus ocean. The clay was squeezed and heated until it recrystallised and took on tortuous shapes. It became a metamorphic rock called a schist. The rocks of Scotland were thrust up into a huge mountain chain, which was as high as the Himalayas are today. So what happened to them?

They are not that high now are they!

What happened was erosion. The Scottish mountains are but the eroded roots of the original mountain chain. They have been eroded by water and by ice. Craig Varr and Schiehallion owe their shapes to erosion by ice that happened in the most recent ice age. The ice retreated from Scotland about 10,000 years ago and in geological terms that is but the blink of a blink of an eyelid.

During the last ice age, ice built up to a thickness of thousands of feet on Rannoch Moor where it sat on top of the hard granodiorite rock and it then flowed out in all compass directions. One direction was east towards Kinloch Rannoch, then Tummel Bridge and then Pitlochry. I think I should mention that these settlements weren’t there at the time.

As the ice travelled in its slow weighty and grinding way it picked up sediment, pebbles, rock and boulders - all grist to its mill. The glacier became a mighty abrasive and it scoured out the long thin lochs of Loch Rannoch and Loch Tummel. These are known as ribbon lakes. The glacier came across ridges in its path - no matter - they were chopped off. They became ‘Truncated Spurs’. A glacier is an irresistible force and a mere ridge is swept away. This is how the crags of Craig Varr were born. The eastward-bound glacier cut through the rock like a knife through butter (well almost) and left the crags we see today. On the other side of the glen the Sleeping Giant received similar treatment. Schiehallion owes it famous pyramidal shape, when seen from the west, to erosion by ice. It looks like a volcano, but it isn’t and never was, honest.

If you climb Craig Varr and look to the west you will be gazing along the ribbon lake that is Loch Rannoch. If the weather is good Loch Rannoch points its blue finger benignly towards Glen Coe.

If the sky is overcast and threatening the loch mirrors that threat with a sinister leaden grey finger that points accusingly into the darkening clouds hiding Glen Coe.

If the west wind roars up Glen Etive and over Rannoch Moor from the angry raging Atlantic your eyes will stream with tears as you will struggle to stay on your feet and you will see the cavalry of white horses gallop across the loch with their manes flying, finally crashing on the beach at Kinloch Rannoch far below. Your hair will be whipped to the east like so many tell-tails as the clouds sail past. The summit trees are bent by the relentless flow, like old men struggling to gain their feet. At times like these Craig Varr is no country for the faint hearted, but exhilaration rules for the spirited - so lift your arms, lean into the wind, feel its power and gasp.

If winter’s vice grips the land, the snow may be thigh deep and the path may be nothing but a distant summer memory. The chilly ice-fringed loch reflects the deep winter blue of the sky and frost turns the birches into decorations of ethereal and exquisite beauty. On transcendental days, such as these, the low sun bejewels everything crystal it touches and all is spectral glitter.

You will think, how can this be?

If from the summit of Craig Varr you look down, there is Kinloch Rannoch, a toy village with tiny cars and people going about their business. If you look south east massive Schiehallion sits brooding, perhaps with a graceful banner cloud playing with the wind about its top.

If you look east you will see the man-made Dunalastair Water with fences yet feeding into the flooded fields that once were. Beyond lies distant Loch Tummel and the even further Ben y Vrackie guarding Pitlochry.

So this is how Craig Varr came to be, and what it is.

Is it worth going to see? You are the judge.