View source for Glen Tilt

{{short description|Glen in Perth and Kinross}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox landform
| water                 = 
| name                  = Glen Tilt
| native_name           ={{Native name|gd|Gleann Teilt}}
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| type                  = Glen
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| photo_caption         = Glen Tilt June 2019
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| location              = Perth and Kinross, Scotland
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| grid_ref_UK           = NN 91731 72687
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'''Glen Tilt''' ([[Scottish Gaelic]]: '''Gleann Teilt''') is a [[glen]] in the extreme north of [[Perth and Kinross]], [[Scotland]]. Beginning at the confines of [[Aberdeenshire]], it follows a South-westerly direction excepting for the last 4 miles, when it runs due south to [[Blair Atholl]]. It is watered throughout by the [[River Garry, Perthshire#Tributaries|Tilt]], which enters the Garry after a course of 14 miles, and receives on its right the [[River Garry, Perthshire#Tributaries|Tarf]], which forms some falls just above the confluence, and on the left the Fender, which has some falls also. The attempt of [[George Murray, 6th Duke of Atholl]] to close the glen to the public was successfully contested by the [[Scottish Rights of Way and Access Society|Scottish Rights of Way Society]] in 1847.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.scottish-places.info/features/featurefirst3824.html|title=Glen Tilt|website=[[Gazetteer for Scotland]]}}</ref> The massive mountain of [[Beinn a' Ghlò]] and its three [[Munro]]s Càrn nan Gabhar (1129 m), Bràigh Coire Chruinn-bhalgain (1070 m) and Càrn Liath (975) dominate the glen's eastern lower half.

[[Perthshire]] is the historic [[county]] that Glen Tilt was within, [[Perth Scotland|Perth]] was the county town.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.britannica.com/place/Perthshire | title=Perthshire &#124; Scotland's Historical Region & UK County &#124; Britannica }}</ref>

Marble of good quality is occasionally quarried in the glen, and the rock formation has long attracted the attention of [[geologists]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}

==Royal banquet for James V, 1532==

A chronicle written by [[Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie]] in the 1570s describes a banquet prepared by the [[John Stewart, 3rd Earl of Atholl|Earl of Atholl]] for [[James V of Scotland|James V]] to impress a Papal ambassador. This event seems to have taken place in 1532 in a temporary wooden lodge built like a castle in Glen Tilt. The lodging was burnt at the end of the event.<ref>Marilyn Brown, [https://books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/arthistoricum/reader/download/418/418-17-82489-1-10-20181004.pdf 'A Palace Designed for Diplomacy: Atholl in 1532', ''Looking for Leisure, Court Residences and their Satellites 1400–1700'' (Palatium, 2018), pp. 62-74] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210727123303/https://books.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/arthistoricum/reader/download/418/418-17-82489-1-10-20181004.pdf |date=27 July 2021 }}</ref> [[Mary, Queen of Scots]] visited Glen Tilt in August 1564,<ref>John M. Gilbert, ''Elite Hunting Culture and Mary, Queen of Scots'' (Boydell, 2024), pp. 127-138.</ref> and wrote a letter from the "Lunkartis in Glentilth" to her ally [[Colin Campbell of Glenorchy]].<ref>''HMC 6th Report: Menzies'' (London, 1877), p. 692.</ref>

==History of Geology==

[[James Hutton]], the pioneer geologist, visited the glen in 1785 and found boulders with [[granite]] penetrating [[metamorphic rock|metamorphic]] [[schist]]s in a way which indicated that the granite had been [[molten]] at the time. This showed to him that granite formed from cooling of molten rock, contradicting the ideas of [[Neptunism]] of that time that theorised that rocks were formed by [[Precipitation (chemistry)|precipitation]] out of water. Hutton concluded that the granite must be younger than the schists.<ref name="Macfarlane">{{cite web |url= http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_200309/ai_n9253355 |title= Glimpses into the abyss of time |author= Robert Macfarlane |work= [[The Spectator]] |publisher= Review of Repcheck's 'The Man Who Found Time' |date= 13 September 2003 |quote= Hutton possessed an instinctive ability to reverse physical processes - to read landscapes backwards, as it were.  Fingering the white quartz which seamed the grey granite boulders in a Scottish glen, for instance, he understood the confrontation that had once occurred between the two types of rock, and he perceived how, under fantastic pressure, the molten quartz had forced its way into the weaknesses in the mother granite. }}</ref><ref name=tilt>{{Cite web |url=http://www.scottishgeology.com/geo/regional-geology/grampian/glen-tilt/ |title=Scottish Geology - Glen Tilt |access-date=2 April 2013 |archive-date=6 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200506211517/https://www.scottishgeology.com/geo/regional-geology/grampian/glen-tilt/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=Kerr>

{{cite journal
 | last = Kerr
 | first = Andrew
 | title = Classic Rock Tours 4. Long Walks, Lost Documents and the Birthplace of Igneous Petrology: Exploring Glen Tilt, Perthshire, Scotland
 | journal = Geoscience Canada
 | volume = 47
 | issue = 1
 | pages = 83–102
 | publisher = The Geological Association of Canada
 | date = 2020
 | url = https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/GC/article/view/31129
 | doi = 10.12789/geocanj.2020.47.159
 | access-date = 2022-04-03| doi-access = free
 }}

</ref> This was one of the findings that led him to develop his theory of [[Plutonism]] and the concept of an immensely long [[geologic time scale]] with "no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end."<ref name="VestigeProspectAMNH">{{cite web|url=http://www.amnh.org/education/resources/rfl/web/essaybooks/earth/p_hutton.html |title=James Hutton: The Founder of Modern Geology |author=American Museum of Natural History |author-link=American Museum of Natural History |work=Earth: Inside and Out |year=2000 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303225940/http://www.amnh.org/education/resources/rfl/web/essaybooks/earth/p_hutton.html |archive-date=2016-03-03 }}</ref>

Sir [[John Clerk of Eldin]] visited the site and produced geological drawings of the area, immediately upstream of the old Dail-An-Eas Bridge which has since collapsed but the abutments remain as a [[List of listed buildings in Blair Atholl, Perth and Kinross|listed building]].<ref>[http://clerkofeldin.com/notices.html The Etchings of John Clerk of Eldin]: letter from Christopher Dingwall, Perthshire.</ref>
{{clear}}

==Gallery==

{{Gallery
|align=center
|footer=
|File:Hutton's Locality - geograph.org.uk - 196015.jpg
 |Hutton's Locality. It was from the Dail-an-eas bridge which used to span the river at this point that [[James Hutton]] found the evidence he was seeking that molten granite had intruded the country rocks.  Location: {{Coord| 56.851082| -3.741822|display=inline|name=Dail-an-eas bridge}}
 |alt1=River flowing through rocks
|File:Hutton's Glen Tilt exposure at Dail-an-eas Bridge.jpg
 |Hutton's Glen Tilt geological exposure at collapsed Dail-an-eas Bridge upstream from Forest Lodge, drawn by John Clerk of Eldin in 1785.   Location: {{Coord| 56.8511| -3.7418|display=inline|name=Dail-an-eas bridge}}
 |alt2=Rock on river bank
|File:JHutton map2.jpg
 |Watercolour image by John Clerk of Eldin of the key exposure at Glen Tilt.  The flow direction of the river is towards the top of the image, in a southwesterly direction. The rectangular areas at the top of the image are the foundations of the collapsed bridge.<ref name="Kerr"/> 
 |alt3=Watercolor of Glen Tilt geological exposure
|File:Glen Tilt 1844 watercolour by William Leighton Leitch.jpg
 |1844 watercolour of Glen Tilt by William Leighton Leitch
|File:Glen Tilt Aug 1885.jpg
 |[[George Washington Wilson]]'s August 1885 photograph of the Glen Tilt looking upstream toward Forest Lodge
}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{oscoor gbx|NN 91731 72687}}
{{Commons category|Glen Tilt}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20050309021424/http://www.fife-education.org.uk/ImageBank/Fillan_Tilt/GlenTilt_valley.htm Image Bank - Glen Tilt valley sides]
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Glentilt|volume=12|page=121}}

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[[Category:Glens of Scotland|Tilt]]
[[Category:Landforms of Aberdeenshire]]
[[Category:Valleys of Perth and Kinross]]
[[Category:James V]]