explosive volcanic activity. If the lava failed to reach the surface it would

gradually cool, solidifying into a sheet of solid rock or dolerite (commonly

called whinstone). This is a hard black rock which develops a rusty coloured

skin with weathering. These sheets can be horizontal, inclined or vertical

depending on the movement of the lava along the fissures and faults of the

earth’s crust.

Drumcarrow Craig is oomposed of a near-horizontal sheet of dolerite, its

eastern side visible from the village as a small steep shoulder. Less obvious

and irregular expanses of dolerite occur at Upper Magus, Greenside and Blebo

Mains Farm. A vertical sheet of dolerite, mostly hidden from view, runs in

a westerly direction under the field in the centre of Strathkinness village,

along the Pleasance and on to Knockhill.

Vents through which lava reached the surface and became plugged by

falling ash and rock fragments are scattered around East Fife, but most are

poorly exposed and only detected by sensitive magnetic instruments. However,

west of the village, at Clatto Hill, the volcanic rock is well exposed in a small

quarry to the northwest and there are other vents a half mile east of Nether

Magask Farm and on the western side of Ladeddie Hill.

The steep slope, or scarp, beyond Blebo Craigs descending into Kemback

and Dura Den was formed by a large fault in the crust which dislocated the

rocks. The rocks on the western side belong to the Devonian Period. They

are slightly older than the Carboniferous rocks on the eastern side and

represent a drier climate with little vegetation, where life was sparse. Fos-

silized fish found at Dura Den are thought to have been trapped in a temporary

lake which was formed by flash floods. (Some of these fossils can be seen in

the museum at the University of St. Andrews Zoology and Geology Depart-

ments and in the British Museum in London.)

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