A somewhat ill-defined route which includes some of the locations of importance in the life and scientific thinking of the 'Father of Modern Geology' James Hutton (1726-97). The route begins at an exhibition at Reiver Country Farm Foods Shop, by Auchencrow, passes Slighhouses where Hutton was once a gentleman farmer, includes a nearby marl-pit from which Hutton extracted calcareous marl to be used as a fertiliser on his soils, continues to the classic unconformity on the Berwickshire Coast at Siccar Point and returns to Nether Monynut, an upland farm most-likely used by Hutton for sheep. Leaving the Eastern Borders for Jedburgh, the trail concludes with a sculpture in Lothian Park by artist Max Nowell celebrating a geological unconformity at nearby Inchbonny, which Hutton used as evidence of his 'Theory of the Earth' (1788). Interpretation boards are provided along the route.
The trail was opened by Aubrey Manning, broadcaster and Emeritus Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh, on 23rd May 2006.
Led by the Borders Foundation for Rural Sustainability, the project was supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the European Regional Development Fund, Scottish Natural Heritage, VisitScotland and the British Geological Survey.
