taken 15 years ago, 5 km ESE of Aucholzie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland
Quartz Cliff
Quartz Cliff on Head of Black Burn above Glentanar. Summit of Mt Keen just visible. This is - obviously? - a large landslip or 'Rock Slope Failure' (RSF) of which there are 600+ in the Highlands. But this one is rare both because RSFs fade out into the NE Grampians - only a handful in Dee-Don catchment - and because it is into a fluvial river valley (V) not a U-shape glacial trough or corrie. So this little Tanar tributary must have done a lot of down-cutting to destabilise this whole slope. Thanks to Hugh Spencer for spotting this pic - as he says "The land here seems to have slumped leaving a jumbly basin of mounds and holes [now heather covered] the head of which is this near vertical cliff about 50 feet high. Anyone not paying attention to the map could walk right off the edge of this... it is virtually invisible approaching from above." This is quite common with RSFs - making them an unexpected mountain hazard.
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