James Hutton Institute

It’s been a decent day of sunshine with some warmth. I’d a walk near Hazlehead taking in the grounds of what is know locally as “ the Macaulay” but nationally as the James Hutton Institute - an internationally recognised research organisation investigating environmental, land and natural resource usage.

James Hutton (1726 – 1797) was a leading figure of the Scottish Enlightenment, an eighteenth century golden age of intellectual and scientific achievements centred on Edinburgh. He is internationally regarded as the founder of modern geology and one of the first scientists to describe the Earth as a living system. His thinking on natural selection influenced Charles Darwin in developing his theory of evolution.