At the Geological Society this evening, for the opening of the Mapping Mountains exhibition, conversation turned to fieldwork.

As a Computer Science student, the furthest I went on a field trip was to the basement. However, there was some consensus amongst all present, that modern geologists need to have undertaken fieldwork, especially mapping, as an undergraduate. To get a feel for terrain, and to be able to visualise and understand what maps and 3d and 4d models are showing, you need to have trampled over what the models are, well, modelling.

That’s not what struck me the most though. What stuck me most was the relationship between a small village in the North West Highlands of Scotland, and the career of a British Geologist.

John Horne and Ben Peach were geologists for what was to become the British Geological Survey. In the 1880s, they were part of a team sent to map the area around Assynt, in the Scottish Highlands.

Their work, which established how the mountains in the area were formed, and identified the principle of thrusts, is seen by many geologists as seminal.

The location of their work, in the Highlands, is ideal for teaching, with a wide variety of rock types and formations, readily exposed for ease of discovery and identification.

And so, for pilgrimage or teaching, many of the UK’s geologists have sat on the bench outside the Inchnadamph Hotel, as John and Ben do in the photo above. Apparently, the hotel’s only changed hands once since the photo was taken, and brown trout anglers prop up the bar when the geologists aren’t there.

How many other locations are so closely tied to a profession? To a branch of science? How many other locations have their demographic so skewed toward one field of study? This tie between place and profession, location and vocation captivates me.