A picturesque coastal cliff on the east coast of the Trotternish Peninsula in Skye, Kilt Rock takes its name from the tartan-like patterns visible in its structure from a roadside viewpoint located at Elishader, a half-mile (0.8 km) to the south. The vertical lines are due to the columnar nature of the dolerite rock, brought about by the slow cooling of sheets of volcanic lava associated with Tertiary volcanoes which was injected between flat-lying Jurassic sedimentary rocks (limestones and mudstones) that give rise to the horizontal pattern. The cliffs rise from sea to a height of 90m (295 feet).
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