Pentland hills

Taken from Craigmillar Castle.

The Pentlands are made up of Lower Old Red Sandstone lavas and sediments and serve as a reminder of Scotlands turbulent past, long before humans or even dinosaurs existed and when volcanoes ruled the world. When ancient volcanoes are depicted in textbooks they are often shown with apocalyptic skies like this and even with all the buildings and evidence of human activity in the way it wasn't too hard to imagine what it might have been like a thousand million years ago. I half expected Brian Blessed to come flying out of it wearing only a pair of wings and some leather underpants. He didn't.