John MacCulloch


1773 - 1835

Geologist. Born in Guernsey (Channel Islands), which was the home of his mother, but his father came from SW Scotland. MacCulloch studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh, where he was taught chemistry by Prof. Joseph Black (1728-99) and natural history by Rev. Prof. John Walker (1730 - 1803). MacCulloch went on to become an army surgeon and then entered private practice. He did much to investigate the geology of Scotland and published the results of his observations in his Description of the Western Islands of Scotland (1819). He investigated the Parallel Roads of Glen Roy and gave the first account of the ancient volcanoes of Scotland, although his interests extended far beyond geology and included botany, chemistry, zoology, mathematics, mechanics and architecture. He served as President of the Geological Society (1816-18) and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1820. MacCulloch was commissioned by the Government to produce a geological map of Scotland, although this was not published until after his death, which came as the result of an accident, whereby he was thrown from his carriage while on his honeymoon in Cornwall. He is buried nearby at Gulval.


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