The principal hills of the Lowlands form two interrupted belts,
extending north-east and south-west, one of them, which we may call the
Northern Heights, facing the Highlands, and the other, which may in
like manner be termed the Southern Heights, flanking the great Uplands
of the south. The former of these two belts is represented by the
Garvock Hills, lying between Stonehaven and the valley of the North
Esk; the Sidlaws, extending from the neighbourhood of Montrose to the
valley of the Tay at Perth; the Ochil Hills, stretching along the south
side of the Firth of Tay to the valley of the Forth at Bridge-of-Allan;
the Lennox Hills, ranging from the neighbourhood of Stirling to
Dumbarton; the Kilbarchan Hills, lying between Greenock and Ardrossan;
the Cumbrae Islands and the southern half of Arran; and the same line
of heights reappears in the south end of Kintyre. A well-marked hollow,
trough, or undulating plain of variable width, separates these Northern
Heights from the Highlands, and may be followed all the way from near
Stonehaven, through Strathmore, to Crieff and Auchterarder. Between the
valleys of the Earn and Teith this plain attains an abnormal height
(the Braes of Doune); but from the Teith, south-west by Flanders
Moss and the lower end of Loch Lomond to the Clyde at Helensburgh,
it resumes its characteristic features. It will be observed also
that a hollow separates the southern portion of Arran from the much
loftier northern or Highland area. The tract known as the Braes of
Doune, extending from Glen Artney south-east to Strath Allan, although
abutting upon the Highlands, is clearly marked off from that great
division by geological composition and structure, by elevation and
configuration. It is simply a less deeply eroded portion of the long
trough or hollow.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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