EXCURSION XVI. 201 



pillar between, is "the King's stable;" smaller caves on the 

 north are " the King's kitchen, larder," and so on. 



95. The King's hill, u Tor-an-righ," a very little way 

 east of this, is the highest point on the shore here, being 

 350 feet in height ; and has probably given the name Tor- 

 more, or the great hill, to the townland. On its summit 

 there are many granite boulders of the fine variety, among 

 which one was distinctly marked with glacial strise. The 

 cliff here is the side of an immense dike of felspar por- 

 phyry ranging nearly N. and S., and fronting the sea 

 in a mural precipice sixty or seventy feet high, along the 

 base of which there is no passage except near low water. 

 The porphyry is very like that of Drumadoon, and the 

 dike is eighty or ninety feet wide. Placed longitudinally 

 in this dike, westward of its middle part, there is a 

 greenstone dike about four feet wide, running out with it 

 seaward to the low point where the porphyry dips into the 

 water; it is also crossed diagonally by a greenstone dike, 

 which bifurcates upon it, and is seen far up on the hill-side 

 above. Alongside the dike there is a large cave. The finest 

 set of dikes to be seen in Arran occurs here, exhibiting, in a 

 small space, all the members of the igneous series, greenstone 

 and basalt, porphyry and trap porphyry, pitchstone, clay- 

 stone, and hornstone. To understand the relations of the 

 various dikes, the shore should first be traversed several 

 times, the whole extent being only a few hundred yards. 

 The dikes range over the sandstone platform to the north- 

 west of this. The principal dike, traceable continuously for 

 a long distance, is formed of green pitchstone; it rises from 

 the sea southward with a range of N. 40 E.; a width of ten 

 or twelve feet, and a S.E. inclination of nearly 30; but the 

 course undulates 35 or 45, bending towards the west, or 

 into parallelism with the shore, towards its northern termina- 

 tion. There are veins of slaty hornstone on both sides, 

 next the sandstone, and on one side a thin layer of basalt. 

 On the side of the great vein next the sea, numerous veins 



