Volcanic Geotourism in West Coast Scotland

This chapter examines volcanic tourism as an aspect of ‘geotourism’ (Hose, 1995, 2000) on Scotland’s west coast (Figure 18.1). This areaincludes parts of two discrete geographical and tourism regions: Ayrshire and Arran in the south and the Highlands in the north and extends some 50km inland. It includes the area encompassed by the Lochaber Geopark and that delineated by the British Geological Survey (BGS) as the ‘Palaeogene volcanic districts of Scotland’ (Emeleus and Bell, 2005), the handbook for which notes that its boundaries ‘are not easy to define, either geographically or geologically’ (Emeleus and Bell, 2005, pix). Geologically it encompasses sections of the major tectonic features of Scotland and parts of its principal uplands (Figure 18.2). Figure 18.1 West Coast Scotland Location Map https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781849775182/ba7f78b3-1eff-440a-898f-77a2d5685445/content/fig18_01_C.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/> Figure 18.2 The Major Landscapes of Scotland Map https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9781849775182/ba7f78b3-1eff-440a-898f-77a2d5685445/content/fig18_02_C.jpg" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>