Arran’s first geologist
Jim Henderson begins a new Voice series on James Hutton (1726 – 1797), the man who put Arran on the map as a place of quite extraordinary geology. His name lives on through ‘Hutton’s Unconformity’, the strange outcrop located on the shoreline between Newton and Laggan on the North of the Island.
When Hutton was born in Edinburgh, on June 3rd 1726, the science of geology did not exist. It was still thought that the earth had been created in about 4004 BC, as stated in the Bible, so the planet we live on was assumed to be not more than roughly 6,000 years of age. It is extraordinary to think that, less than 300 years ago, we knew nothing of the structure of the earth’s structure – but James Hutton was to change all that.
The start of his life did not look promising. When he was a young child his father died, leaving young James and his three sisters for their mother to bring up – but all the same, James was educated in the local High School and, from the age of 14, at Edinburgh University. There, he developed a passionate interest in scientific inquiry. Perhaps out of conscience, at 17 he began work as an apprentice to a lawyer, but it did not last long. The lawyer advised him to continue his studies in a field more akin to his scientific mind. Hutton went back to University, and this time chose to study medicine, which had some similarity to chemistry – one of his favourite subjects. After a further 3 years at Edinburgh he completed his medical studies in Paris, gaining a degree in 1749.
by Sir Henry Raeburn
