NO7764Milton Ness was formerly in the historic county of Kincardineshire which was popularly known as the Mearns. Major administrative reorganisation in 1975, however, resulted in a change of name to Kincardine and Deeside in the Grampian Region and later in 1996 this became included in the Aberdeenshire unitary area. The name, the Mearns, lives on to a degree due, in part, to the novels of Lewis Grassic Gibbon (1901-1935) who is widely regarded as the most significant Scottish novelist of the early 20th century.
The promontory of Milton Ness on the east coast of Scotland is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) covering an area of 25.51 ha. Its location is approximately midway between St Cyrus and Johnshaven and some 33 miles, (53km), south of Aberdeen. The general appearance of the site is that of a low lying wave-cut platform which has been shaped by the processes of coastal erosion.
The single most important reason for the SSSI status is connected to the geology of Milton Ness. The rocks exposed at the coast are important for the study of fossil carbonate soils in rocks that are often referred to as Old Red Sandstone. Old Red Sandstone is mainly of Devonian age (359-419) million years old) but ranges from late Silurian (419-444) million years ago) and to early Carboniferous (299-359 million years ago). The country rock at Milton Ness is late Devonian to early Carboniferous in age and forms part of a rock sequence known as the Kinnesswood Formation. This rock derives from sediment deposited by rivers which once flowed across an alluvial plain. Most of the sediment was the mud and sand that now forms the consolidated mudstone and characteristic red sandstone.
Around 359 million years ago, when the sediments were being deposited at Milton Ness, Scotland lay south of the Equator. The climate, at that time, was hot, semi-arid and seasonally wet. This climate combined with low sedimentation rates was favourable for the formation of ‘calcrete’ or ‘caliche’. This can be seen as white nodules or as patches and layers in the red sandstone. Milton Ness is one of the best examples of Old Red Sandstone in Britain where calcrete has developed to the stage of layered hardpan as opposed to nodules.
Dissolution of the calcrete horizon has resulted in roots being encased in hardened calcium carbonate. These organosedimentary structures were the first rhizoliths to be identified in Old Red Sandstone and they are some of the finest examples in any rocks of the whole Palaeozoic era (541-252 million years ago).
The exposed headland of Milton Ness is an important site for the study of late glacial (Late Devensian) and post-glacial (Holocene) sea-level change in the Montrose area over the last 14,700 years. The site shows important facets of the coastal evolution of eastern Scotland including an intertidal rock platform, two late glacial (Late Devensian) raised beaches and a post-glacial (Holocene) raised beach. All the raised beaches at Milton Ness are excellent examples of glacial and post-glacial processes, including isostatic rebound, which allow study of their sedimentology (internal structure) and morphology (external shape), and comparison with other glacial landscapes in the Mearns and beyond.
Adrian Diack, M.A. (Hons)
NO7764 : Milton Ness, Aberdeenshire, ScotlandNO7764 : Milton Ness promontory, Aberdeenshire, ScotlandNO7764 : Holocene raised beach and line of relict cliffs by Tangleha' CottagesNO7764 : Kinnesswood Formation rocks exposed at Milton Ness, AberdeenshireNO7764 : Kinnesswood Formation rocks at Milton Ness in southern Aberdeenshire