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This thesis is the first detailed, modem account of the geology of the southern Rhinns of Galloway, SW Scotland subsequent to work by the Geological Survey last century. It integrates the geology described with the rest of the Southern Uplands-Down-Longford terrane and offers a plate-tectonic synthesis for its development. The southern Rhinns consists of eleven NE-SW trending, sub-vertical tectonic blocks resulting from the thrust imbrication of a c. 35 million year Caradoc to Llandovery age sequence of chert, bentonite, shale, mudstone, greywacke and conglomerate. The pelagic/hemipelagic Moffat Shale Group acted as a locus for thrust development. The greywackes have a siliceous petrography with sporadic input of volcaniclastic material and a major influx of detrital carbonate in the youngest formation. A recycled orogen provenance is indicated. Facies analysis indicates the catastrophic progradation of clastic, inboard deposits southeastwards over contemporaneous pelagic/hemipelagic, outboard deposits. Most of the formations were deposited in a highly confined basin, whereas the Port Logan Formation and Mull of Galloway Formation were deposited in large, unconfined submarine fans. Palaeocurrent flow was dominantly from the NE or NW, though the two youngest formations provide the first unequivocal evidence of major southeasterly derivation in the Southern Uplands. The style and vergence of D1 deformation changes across the Port Logan Bay Fault, the area to the SE constituting a 12 km zone of opposing fold and thrust geometry to that dominant in the terrane. A model of sequential Silurian simple shear and pure shear deformation in a steady-state trench environment above a NW-dipping subduction zone is proposed. A set of post-D2 NW-vergent recumbent folds and thrusts related to end-Caledonian terminal collision of Cadomia and Laurentia provide evidence of major sinistral strike-slip along the Cairngarroch Fault prior to collision.

The tobacco trade formed the basis of the Chesapeake economy during the Eighteenth Century. Tobacco was shipped to Britain during the -colonial period, in accordance with the Navigation Acts, and then sold in European markets. The French market increased rapidly during the first half of the century, and the Glasgow tobacco companies took the lead in supplying the French monopoly administered by the Farmers General. The Scots gained the advantage over other British merchants by setting up networks of stores to facilitate the collection of tobacco and the sale of goods, and by devising an extensive credit system to cater for the needs of the smaller planters in the Piedmont. The Scottish merchants were in fierce competition with each other, and with English merchants. This competition ensured that the planters were not, to any significant degree, exploited by the merchants. In many cases, the planters were able to combine in order to extract very favourable prices and credit facilities. The Scots were a closely-knit community, and although many left the Glasgow companies to become independent traders they were seen as outsiders. Radical propagandists encouraged this feeling in order to arouse anti-British sentiment. The allegations levelled against the Scots, however, were largely groundless. When war broke out a large proportion of the Scots left the Chesapeake, and the assets of the Glasgow companies were seized. Nevertheless, the Scots set up a system of agents in New York and the West Indies, both to supply the rebelling colonies with goods in exchange for tobacco wherever this was practicable, and to have channels available for a speedy return to the Chesapeake whenever peace was declared. After the war significant numbers of Scots returned to the Chesapeake, in order to collect debts and to trade in goods and tobacco. Many planters returned to their pre-war Scots companies, and trade once again fell into the colonial pattern. Britain dominated the carrying trade, the only major difference being that it was now not necessary to call at a British port before proceeding to Europe, other than to collect orders. The readiness of planters to return to the old pattern of trade suggests that it was advantageous to the Americans, and not a mere product of the Navigation Acts. The Scots were not successful in using trade after the war as a means of recovering debt; and with the outbreak of war in Europe, most companies closed their stores and relied on the assistance of the British government to recovery debts. Yet many of the Scots factors remained in the Chesapeake, and continued to trade and benefit the area.

This thesis presents the history of nature conservation and recreation in the Cairngorms area of the eastern Highlands of Scotland, over the century 1880-1980. An introductory chapter sets the scene by describing the observations of travellers, sportsmen and naturalists who visited the area from c.1770. The study then traces the history of the National Park debate in the Cairngorms area (and to an extent, in Scotland), the history of the National Forest Park ideal focusing in on Glenmore, and the history of two National Nature Reserves, including the Cairngorms NNR (the largest in Great Britain). Other chapters address, within an historical framework, the public nature conservation success story of the Osprey on Speyside; the nineteenth and twentieth century rights of way debate and the question of access to mountains and moorland; the development of Aviemore and the Spey Valley as a year-round recreational playground and winter sports centre. Photography and film-making are highlighted as mediums through which nature conservation and recreation have been legitimised and popularised for a mass audience outside the Cairngorms area. The thesis discusses the background to the present landuse conflicts that have dogged the Cairngorms area from 1980, and may prove helpful to land-managers and policymakers in government, conservation and recreation bodies, as it charts the remarkable degree of change in attitudes to nature conservation and recreation witnessed in the Cairngorms. Recreation has always been seen to directly benefit more people, but it is the quality of the environment that supports that recreation. The Cairngorms represent a case study in this kind of conflict, which over the past century has become increasingly common in the UK, Europe and North America. The work is a contribution to the construction of a modem environmental history of Great Britain.

The Ordovician rocks of the Bail Hill area, Sanquhar, South Scotland : volcanism and sedimentation in the lapetus Ocean. by M. J .McMurtry. The Bail Hill area lies in the "Northern Belt" of the Southern Uplands and contains sedimentary and volcanic rocks of Llandeilo/Caradoc age. The sedimentary succession has been divided into four formations - the Glenflosh, Kiln, Spothfore and Guffock Formations. The Glenflosh and Guffock Formations are mainly arenaceous and were largely deposited by turbidity currents flowing to the southwest. They typically consist of Tae units. The fine-grained sandstones and siltstones of the Kiln Formation were also deposited by turbidity currents. Parallel-laminated units in the lower part of the formation represent "overbank" deposits, whilst lenticular- bedded units in the upper part are interpreted as channel- mouth deposits. Bouma sequences are not common in these lithologies. The Spothfore Formation consists of rudites deposited by a variety of sediment and fluid gravity flows close to a feeder system. The petrography of greywackes within the formations shows no significant variation across strike, in contrast to successions studied to the southwest. The provenance of detritus in the sediments is believed to be the north-westerly Laurentian continent with a significant but variable intrabasinal contribution of sedimentary and volcanic debris. A stratigraphic succession for the area is proposed, although graptolite evidence for the relative ages of the formations is equivocal. A new stratigraphic unit, the Bail Hill Volcanic Group, is proposed and the petrography and field relations of the subdivisions within this group are discussed. Field relations suggest that the Bail Hill volcano was a composite, central-type structure. Early basaltic lavas were succeeded by more differentiated lithologies and pyroclastic activity increased with time. The mineral and whole-rock chemistry indicates the Bail Hill Volcanic Group has differentiated along the sodic alkaline series (alkali basalt - hawaiite - mugearite - trachyte). Gabbroic and dioritic xenoliths in the extrusive rocks are believed to be fragments of a large sub-volcanic intrusive mass that underlay the Bail Hill volcano in Ordovician times. The volcanic pile as a whole has undergone metamorphism to zeolite facies grade. Higher grade assemblages in the xenoliths suggest that they were hydrothermally altered prior to incorporation in the extrusive rocks. It is concluded that the Bail Hill Volcanic Group represents the remnants of a seamount within the Iapetus Ocean, whilst the sedimentary rocks record the transition from the abyssal plain into a Lower Palaeozoic trench. Northwesterly subduction of the lapetus Ocean crust resulted in the accretion of the Bail Hill area on to the facing edge of the northwesterly Laurentian continent.

The Moffat Shales form a 100-metre condensed politic succession of middle Ordovician to Silurian age. 210 samples were collected from several inliers and were dated by contained graptolites. Mineralogy indicates low greenschist facies regional metamorphism. Correlation and multivariate statistical techniques assess the interdependence of the range of major and trace elements analysed, and demonstrate progressive change related to an increasing input of clay. Physiography is deduced as the main factor controlling sedimentation with physico-chemical conditions and the decay of organic matter having important influences. Amino acids were not detected. Minor amounts of alkanes occur, with the highest average yield extracted from sediments at the locality of Hartfell, and lesser amounts from Dobb's Linn and Clanyard Bay. Their abundance and distribution is related to thermal effects of metamorphism and to biodegradation. Metamorphism of kerogen has produced a graphite-d1a structure. Structural ordering is highest in Hartfell kerogens and can be related to the proximity of reverse faults. Optical properties and textural relationships of carbonized graptolite fragments are related to distance from a porphyrite dyke. Samples show increasing reflectivity, refractive and absorptive indices approaching the intrusion from the south. To the north, three discontinuities in the reflectivity trend are attributed to reactivation of reverse faults following intrusion. Dispersion of reflectivity with wavelength shows a rise from blue to red corresponding to that of anthracitic vitrinites. The relationship between optical parameters and temperature indicates that carbonization has occurred at lower temperatures than for the coal-carbon transformation. Contrasts are attributed to initial chemistry, and rank, also to the unknown effects of time and tectonically induced pressure and temperature. Reflectivity of dispersed graptolite fragments is used as a rank index for Moffat Shales cropping out in Luce Bay and near Moffat. At Luce Bay values correspond to those of coals in the low volatile bituminous to anthracitic range with high values occurring near faults. Coalification is related mainly to regional metamorphism; secondary processes, e.g. migration of hot fluids along fractures, may also have operated. At Moffat, comparable rank ranges are distributed along the southeast flank of a Caledonoid trending dome, low values occurring adjacent to the Ettrick Valley Thrust, high at Hartfell. Secondary thermal effects from an unexposed pluton are deduced. Further evidence of enhanced thermal activity in the Hartfell sediments is presented from a study of the electrical conduction of powdered samples. The low resistance of Hartfell samples is attributed to the graphitic nature of the relatively abundant carbonaceous material.

Weathered rock has been located at over 450 sites in northeast Scotland. Depths of weathering locally exceed 30m but the weathering front is often highly irregular. The incidence of weathering is spatially variable and weathering zones are identified which reflect the influence of geology, fracturing, slopes and patterns of glacial erosion. Two weathering types, grusses and clayey grusses, are recognised after examination of granulometry, geochemistry and clay mineralogy. The grusses have low clay contents, high proportions of little-altered felspar and biotite, modest soluble base losses and heterogeneous clay mineral assemblages. The grusses are equivalent to the 'sandy weathering type' of Bakker (1967) and were formed mainly under the temperate environments of the late Pliocene and the early Pleistocene. The clayey grusses have elevated clay contents, high proportions of detrital quartz, high soluble base losses, kaolinite-illite bi-mineralic assemblages and may be rubefied. The clayey grusses formed under warmer environments than at present, probably in the Miocene. The Buchan Gravels consist of two formations of separate age. The Windyhills Formation comprises fluvial gravels of Middle to Late Pliocene age. The Buchan Ridge Formation includes glacially- disturbed masses of fluviatile deposits of Late Miocene to Early Pliocene age. The denudational history of the region is reconstructed using evidence from morphology, weathering types, and onshore and offshore geology. In the Late Cretaceous, transgression into the Buchan area left a cover of Greensand and Chalk. In the Palaeocene, the eastern Grampians were uplifted and tilted but the eastern lowlands were simultaneously downwarped towards the outer Moray Firth. Western areas subsided after the Early Eocene, the Chalk was exposed and the Mid-Palaeogene etchplain developed under tropical environments. Differential movements recurred at the Oligo-Miocene boundary, with uplift and tilting west of the Bennachie-Fare Fracture and initiation of basin development. Further etching in the warm and stable Middle Miocene period led to the establishment of the main erosion surfaces. The Eastern Grampian Surface (450 - 750m) is an etchsurface produced by lowering of the Mid-Palaeogene etchplain. The Marginal Surface (280 - 370m) is derived from a Miocene etchplain that was raised and tilted gently eastwards in the late Neogene. Fragments of this surface are associated with clayey grusses and the Buchan Ridge gravels in central Buchan and the Buchan Surface (60 - 140m) has developed by lowering of this relief in the Pliocene. Drainage incision in the early Pleistocene led to development of younger forms along valleys. Repeated glaciation failed to greatly modify pre-existing relief.

The Lower Palaeozoic succession of the Gala area, Southern Uplands, comprises two contrasting facies, a pelagic/hemipelagic sequence, the Moffat Shales, and overlying turbidite sandstone (greywacke) successions variously of Ordovician and Silurian age. The area is divided into fault blocks bounded by a series of major strike faults, leading to contrasting sequences variously successive fault blocks; pelagic/hemipelagic facies are replaced by turbidites progressively later south-eastwards. Turbidites in the two northernmost blocks are of Ordovician age, and include two formations. Blocks to the south are formed of three successively younger formations of the Gala Group (Upper Llandovery), with Moffat Shales spanning the Upper Llandeilo - Upper Llandovery interval, whilst the southernmost block includes one formation representing the Hawick Group (Wenlock). Two formations within the Gala Group have been further subdivided into members. In most instances, formations crop out within discrete fault blocks, though in one instance successively higher levels within a single formation form three separate blocks, whilst another block includes an interdigitating intraformational contact, attributed to the overlapping of two turbidite fans of contrasting source areas. Whereas blocks display successively younger flysch sequences to the SE, strata within each block young dominantly to MW. The structural style is comparable to areas elsewhere in the Southern Uplands; showing evidence of prolonged and continuous deformation. Though these observations would support formation of an accretionary prism on an active continental-oceanic margin in response to a north-westward subduction of an oceanic plate, lack of consistent variation in dip attitudes and axial overturning may dispute this proposition. Palaeocurrents suggest a combination of axial and lateral derivation of rudites and associated fine-grained lithologies with contrasting zones of facies associations, representing environments ranging from inner- to outer-fan (fringe) and basin plain, and suggesting at least three cycles of progression and regression of turbidite fans. Greywacke petrography suggests mainly a magmatic-arc and ophiolitic derivation for 'basic-clast' greywackes and a dominantly Highland type derivation for 'silicic' greywackes, with recycling becoming increasingly significant in the higher levels, and indicating elevations of parts of the succession already accreted. Mineral assemblages, illite crystallinity and values of illites establishes the anchizone of metamorphism without a significant areal variation increase in grade.

Empirical studies in the sub-field of European state-building within political science have centered on material or institutional explanations for the development of the modern state. These cross-case analyses ignore key distinctions amongst cases, such as the importance of ideational factors in the modernizing process. This case study of the development of the British state looks at how changes in the conceptualization of the state and the nature of constitutionalism evolved over the course of the 17th century through the political writings of several influential theorists. This evolutionary process highlights distinctions in British constitutionalism between the personalist Union of the Crowns and the constitutionalist parliamentary Acts of Union. This study concludes with a discussion of the Scottish independence movement and the possible effects of the 2014 referendum on the British state.

The educational ideals of late sixteenth and early seventeenth century Scotland were informed both by an appreciation of the needs of the godly commonwealth and by familiarity with pedagogical developments on the continent of Europe. The achievement of these ideals was hampered by the exacerbation of inherent problems in the funding of Scottish education by the effects of the Reformation of 1560, necessitating additional endowment by private individuals. In this context, the foundation of Marischal College in 1593, partly because of its flaws, offered a focus for and a stimulus to civic piety in the burgh of Aberdeen. The motivations of those who made mortifications (benefactions in perpetual trust) to the College and to the grammar school of Aberdeen, and the forms their benefactions took, were conditioned not only by experience of educational practices abroad, but also by the complex religious and social sanctions operating in a reformed society. The implementation of these benefactions was affected by the political, religious and economic crises engulfing seventeenth century Scotland, but not to the extent that the goals of benefactors were abandoned. While what was achieved fell short of the ideal, the mortifications ensured a degree of provision of scholars and teaching in the burgh which might not otherwise have been possible.