West Lomond is the highest point in the county of

Fife Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

and the highest peak in the Lomond Hills. Its cone-shaped summit, which is the remains of a

volcanic plug A volcanic plug, also called a volcanic neck or lava neck, is a volcano, volcanic object created when magma hardens within a Volcanic vent, vent on an active volcano. When present, a plug can cause an extreme build-up of high gas pressure if risi ...

, rises above an

escarpment An escarpment is a steep slope or long cliff that forms as a result of faulting or erosion and separates two relatively level areas having different elevations. Due to the similarity, the term '' scarp'' may mistakenly be incorrectly used inte ...

Carboniferous The Carboniferous ( ) is a Geologic time scale, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), system of the Paleozoic era (geology), era that spans 60 million years, from the end of the Devonian Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the ...

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

and

limestone Limestone is a type of carbonate rock, carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material Lime (material), lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different Polymorphism (materials science) ...

layers, capped with a quartz-microgabbro sill. The conspicuous peaks of West Lomond, and its neighbour East Lomond, are visible for many miles around, which explains one suggested origin of their name, the 'Lomond' or 'beacon' hills. On the summit are the remains of an

Iron Age The Iron Age () is the final epoch of the three historical Metal Ages, after the Chalcolithic and Bronze Age. It has also been considered as the final age of the three-age division starting with prehistory (before recorded history) and progre ...

hill fort A hillfort is a type of fortification, fortified refuge or defended settlement located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typical of the late Bronze Age Europe, European Bronze Age and Iron Age Europe, Iron Age. So ...

. West Lomond is usually climbed from Craigmead car park on the Falkland-Leslie road which is at a height of almost 300 metres. Another route of ascent leaves from the Bunnet Stane and climbs diagonally up the steep north slopes of the escarpment to a gap in the cliffs, gaining the

plateau In geology and physical geography, a plateau (; ; : plateaus or plateaux), also called a high plain or a tableland, is an area of a highland consisting of flat terrain that is raised sharply above the surrounding area on at least one side. ...

a short distance from the summit cone. This route is steeper and begins at a much lower altitude than the Craigmead car park.

Geodesy

Until 1891 West Lomond was the meridian of the 6 inch and 1:2500 Ordnance Survey maps of Kinross and Fife. After that the maps of Kinross and Fife were drawn according to the meridian of The Buck in Aberdeenshire.

References

External links

Scottish National Heritage

Walk Scotland

School of Geosciences, University of Edinburgh
{{coord, 56.24511, N, 3.29733, W, region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(NO197066), display=title Marilyns of Scotland Hills of Fife Highest points of historic Scottish counties