The Fintry Hills form the western end of a range of hills which stretch west from the city of

Stirling Stirling (; ; ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in Central Belt, central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town#Scotland, market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the roya ...

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 ...

. They culminate in the peak of Stronend, which overlooks Strathendrick and the village of

Fintry Fintry is a small riverside village in Stirlingshire, central Scotland. It is located south-west of Stirling and around north of Glasgow. Landscape The village of Fintry sits by the Endrick Water in a strath between the Campsie Fells and the ...

. The northern, western and southern sides of the hills are defined by a steep and craggy escarpment, whilst the eastern sides run more gently down into the valley of the Backside Burn and Endrick Water. The Boquhan Burn, which runs initially northeastwards, drops over the northern scarp at the Spout of Ballochleam. Loch Walton lies at the foot of the hills’ southern slopes.

Geology

Like the neighbouring

Gargunnock Hills The Gargunnock Hills are a range of hills west of the city of Stirling, Scotland. They culminate in the peak of Carleatheran, whose summit is crowned by a trigonometrical pillar. The Gargunnock Hills are separated from the Fintry Hills to their w ...

they are composed of volcanic rocks, mainly

basalt Basalt (; ) is an aphanite, aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the planetary surface, surface of a terrestrial ...

lava Lava is molten or partially molten rock (magma) that has been expelled from the interior of a terrestrial planet (such as Earth) or a Natural satellite, moon onto its surface. Lava may be erupted at a volcano or through a Fissure vent, fractu ...

s and

tuff Tuff is a type of rock made of volcanic ash ejected from a vent during a volcanic eruption. Following ejection and deposition, the ash is lithified into a solid rock. Rock that contains greater than 75% ash is considered tuff, while rock co ...

s erupted during the Chadian to Asbian substages of the

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 ...

period. The igneous rocks are named as the Clyde Plateau Volcanic Formation, itself a part of the

Strathclyde Group The Strathclyde Group is a Group (geology), geological group found in the Central Lowlands, Midland Valley of Scotland. It preserves fossils of Visean, the Visean age (early Carboniferous Period (geology), period). See also * List of fossilife ...

. In stratigraphical succession i.e. youngest/uppermost at top, the individual members (subdivisions of a formation) are: *Spout of Ballochleam Lava Member (microporphyritic basalt) *Fintry Hills Lava Member (basaltic lava) *Shelloch Burn Lava Member (trachybasalt) *Spout of Ballochleam Lava Member (microporphyritic basalt) *Slackgun Volcaniclastic Member (sandstone, conglomerate) *Skiddaw Lava Member (basaltic lava) Stronend, the summit, is not formed from the stratigraphically uppermost member but from the Shelloch Burn lavas since the entire pile is tilted. The northern cliffs and Double Craigs are formed by the Spout of Ballochleam lavas. Substantial amounts of landslip material are arrayed beneath these cliffs. The volcanic sequence sits upon a plinth of

sedimentary rocks Sedimentary rocks are types of rock formed by the cementation of sediments—i.e. particles made of minerals (geological detritus) or organic matter (biological detritus)—that have been accumulated or deposited at Earth's surface. Sedim ...

which from the low ground to the north and west, together with the lower parts of the north and west facing scarp. These are the Clyde Sandstone Formation (sandstone, siltstone, mudstone) and the underlying Ballaggan Formation (mudstone, sandstone, limestone), both of which form part of the Inverclyde Group of the Carboniferous system. In the vicinity of a dun and southeast to Spittalhill by an intrusion of basalt/microgabbro. Dykes of similar composition intrude the lava sequence, notably on the hills' southern flanks.

References

External links

images of Fintry Hills on Geograph website
{{coord, 56.071, -4.167, dim:3000_region:GB, display=title Hills of the Scottish Midland Valley Mountains and hills of Stirling (council area) Mountain ranges of Scotland