Scottish Silurian shorelines

The Silurian inliers of the Midland Valley of Scotland all exhibit a regressive sequence, and despite evident facies differences between inliers, marine successions invariably pass upwards into redbeds of continental origin. Contrasting types of shoreline facies can be seen in different inliers; here the beds in the North Esk Inlier (NEI) are compared with those previously described from Knockgardner. At Knockgardner a high energy coastal environment prevailed, but in the NEI very different conditions can be identified in near-contemporaneous deposits. In the NEI thin sandstones and siltstones of the Reservoir and Deerhope formations are succeeded by the sandstones and conglomeratic beds of the Cock Rig Formation. These are overlain by the marine mudstones of the Wether Law Linn Formation and, at the top of the sequence, the continental redbeds of the Henshaw Formation. The Wether Law Linn Formation is interpreted, on various lines of evidence, as a lagoonal system. Conditions therein were initially fully marine, though within the photic zone, but subsequently the faunas were increasingly influenced by fluctuating salinity, prior to deposition of the redbeds. Such a lagoon would have required an offshore bar impounding it, which is represented by the Cock Rig Formation. These sedimentary rocks, previously interpreted as deposits of a laterally unconfined submarine channel, are now considered to be of shallow water origin. The succession closely conforms to classic models in which shoreface sands, consisting of small cross-bedded packets, are succeeded by tabular sandstone sheets representing foreshore beach deposits. Coarser and thicker beds, with herringbone cross-sets, linguoid ripples and trains of rounded pebbles, are interpreted as the deposits of tidal channels within the barrier complex. The barrier-lagoon system persisted throughout the whole of Cock Rig time and most or all of the time during which the Wether Law Linn Formation was deposited, and was either static or prograded seawards until the lagoon dried up during a final marine regression. The sedimentary and faunal evidence is consistent with this interpretation, and the contrast between the shoreline environments of the NEI and Knockgardner is striking. Brief reference is made to other inliers in the Midland Valley.