Hutton's Unconformity
Scottish Country Dance Instruction
HUTTON'S UNCONFORMITY (S4x32) 4C Set Murrough Landon, 20222 chords: 2nd chord 3L and 4M change places to be beside partner
1- 8 1s cross RH and cast (2s step up); 1s dance down between 3M+4M (who step up), cast behind 3L+4L (who step up) to 4th place opposite side while 2s cross RH and cast to 2nd place as 3M+4M step up. [Men's side: 3M,2L,3L,1L; Ladies' side: 4M,2M,4L,1M]
9-16 1s followed by 2s dance down (3L+4L step up 11-12); 2s followed by 1s dance up to 3rd/4th place
17-20 3s+4s also 2s+1s circle 4H ½ round to left (2 bars), turn partner 2H [Men's side: 4L,4M,1M,2M; Ladies' side: 3L,3M,1L,2L]
21-24 3s+4s also 2s+1s circle 4H ¾ round to right, retain hands with neighbour and face partner, 4s+3s at top, 1s+2s Men facing down Ladies facing up
25-28 4s cross passing RSh, cast and face up nearer hands joined while
3s advance and retire (1 bar each), cross up passing LSh and face down nearer hands joined while
1s+2s advance and retire up/down (1 bar each) and ½ turn partner 2H, retain nearer hands facing in
29-32 3s+4s set and link across back to own sides while 1s+2s set and link on sides [Men's side: 3M,4M,2M,2L; Ladies' side: 3L,4L,1M,1L]
(MINICRIB. Dance crib compiled by Charles Upton, Deeside Caledonian Society, and his successors)
Hutton's Unconformity (4x32S) 32 bar strathspey for four couples in a longwise set, Murrough Landon, 2022
The dance starts with two chords. On the second chord 3rd woman and 4th man change places so that 1st and 2nd couples are facing their partner while 3rd and 4th couples are beside their partner.
1-4 1st couple cross over giving right hands then cast off as 2nd couple step up.
5-8 1st couple dance down between 3rd and 4th men as they step up, then cast off as 3rd and 4th women step up.
Meanwhile 2nd couple cross over giving right hands then cast off as 3rd and 4th men step up again.
9-16 1st couple followed by 2nd couple dance down for four bars. 3rd and 4th women step up to 2nd place on bars 11-12. Then 2nd couple followed by 1st couple dance up, ending in 3rd and 4th places respectively.
17-20 3rd and 4th couples, also 2nd and 1st couples, each circle four hands round half way to the left for two bars. All then turn their partner once round with both hands ending back in the same circles.
21-24 3rd and 4th couples, also 2nd with 1st couples, each circle four hands round three quarters to the right. All retain hands with their neighbour and end facing their partner. 4th and 3rd couples at the top face across. 1st and 2nd men, in the centre in 3rd place, face down to their partners who face up in 4th place.
25-28 4th couple cross passing right shoulder, cast off and take nearer hands facing up. Meanwhile 3rd couple advance for one and retire for one then cross up, passing left shoulder, and curve towards each other to face down nearer hands joined.
Meanwhile 1st and 2nd couples advance for one and retire for one up and down, then half turn their partner with both hands and retain nearer hands facing in.
29-32 3rd and 4th couples set and link across the dance ending back on their own sides. Meanwhile 1st and 2nd couples set and link on the sides (with small setting steps). The final order is 3,4,2,1. 2nd and 1st couples are beside their partner on the men's and women's sides respectively, with the men above the women.
(Dance crib compiled by the deviser, Murrough Landon CC BY-SA June 2022)
Keith Rose's Crib Diagrams
Dance Instruction Videos
Hutton's Unconformity - Scottish Country Dancing Instruction VideoDance Information
This dance commemorates James Hutton (1726-1797) one of Scotland's foremost scientists who is considered the founder of modern geology.He was one of the first to realise that weathering of rock formations showed the Earth was far older than was assumed at the time. Most famously he found several "unconformities" where strata of sedimentary rocks clearly overlaid older strata at a very different angle indicating that the older rocks must have been raised up from the sea bed, turned over so the strata were vertical, then sunk again and later covered with new sedimentary layers and raised up a second time.
The cross, cast off and dance down figures indicate build up of the sedimentary layers. These are compressed when 1st and 2nd couples end closer together by bar 16 than at bar 9.
The rock layers are turned in bars 17-24.
The last figure has a hint of more sedimentation but is mainly oriented across at the top and up/down at the bottom like a typical unconformity.
Recommended music: Suggested tune Strong Tea by Angus Fitchet; suitable recording Silverdale Strathspey (Neil Barron and his SDB: The Third Sheaf Collection).
(Dance information by the deviser, Murrough Landon, CC BY-SA June 2022)
James Hutton FRSE (1726-1797), often referred to as the "Father of Modern Geology", was a Scottish geologist, agriculturalist, chemical manufacturer, naturalist and physician.
Hutton advanced the idea that the physical world's remote history can be inferred from evidence in present-day rocks. Through his study of features in the landscape and coastlines of his native Scottish lowlands, such as Salisbury Crags or Siccar Point, he developed the theory that geological features could not be static but underwent continuing transformation over indefinitely long periods of time.
From this he argued, in agreement with many other early geologists, that the Earth could not be young. He was one of the earliest proponents of what in the 1830s became known as uniformitarianism, the science which explains features of the Earth's crust as the outcome of continuing natural processes over the long geologic time scale.
In the summer of 1785 at Glen Tilt and other sites in the Cairngorm mountains in the Scottish Highlands, Hutton found granite penetrating metamorphic schists, in a way which indicated that the granite had been molten at the time. This was Hutton's first geological field trip and he was invited by the Duke of Atholl to his hunting lodge, Forest Lodge. The exposures at the Dail-an-eas Bridge demonstrated to him that granite formed from the cooling of molten rock rather than it precipitating out of water as others at the time believed, and therefore the granite must be younger than the schists. Hutton presented his theory of the earth on March 4 and April 7, 1785, at the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
He went on to find a similar penetration of volcanic rock through sedimentary rock in Edinburgh, at Salisbury Crags, adjoining Arthur's Seat - this area of the Crags is now known as Hutton's Section. He found other examples in Galloway in 1786, and on the Isle of Arran in 1787.
The existence of angular unconformities had been noted by Nicolas Steno and by French geologists including Horace-Bénédict de Saussure, who interpreted them in terms of Neptunism as "primary formations". Hutton wanted to examine such formations himself to see "particular marks" of the relationship between the rock layers. On the 1787 trip to the Isle of Arran he found his first example of Hutton's Unconformity to the north of Newton Point near Lochranza, but the limited view meant that the condition of the underlying strata was not clear enough for him, and he incorrectly thought that the strata were conformable at a depth below the exposed outcrop.
Later in 1787 Hutton noted what is now known as the Hutton or "Great" Unconformity at Inchbonny, Jedburgh, in layers of sedimentary rock. As shown in the illustrations below, layers of greywacke in the lower layers of the cliff face are tilted almost vertically, and above an intervening layer of conglomerate lie horizontal layers of Old Red Sandstone. He later wrote of how he "rejoiced at my good fortune in stumbling upon an object so interesting in the natural history of the earth, and which I had been long looking for in vain." That year, he found the same sequence in Teviotdale.

Hutton Unconformity, Jedburgh
The Section Is Located About 5 Minutes Walk From The Jedburgh Abbey, Scotland
Published in Hutton's Unconformity, reproduced here with the kind permission of the deviser, Murrough Landon, CC BY-SA.
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Text from this original James Hutton article on Wikipedia.
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