Torridon

The mountains of Torridon are brooding and massive, with prominent horizontal rock strata stacked up steeply above deeply dissected glens. They are an area of long ridges, high corrie lochans, screes and wild open moorland. Their distinctive character derives partly from geology, with Cambrian quartzite ‘caps’ protecting layers of Pre-Cambrian sandstone, all on a platform of ancient Lewisian gneiss. More recently they have been carved into shape by long periods of glaciation. Remnants of the ancient Caledonian pine forest remain intact on some of the lower slopes, and human settlement is confined to a few tiny hamlets, mostly on the coastal fringe.