Hutton Memorial Garden Traditional Geocache
manylegs: The problems with litter and homeless people sleeping here are making this cache decidedly unpleasant. I've decided to archive it. Apologies to those who have found it blighted.
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A simple cache located around the Hutton Memorial Garden - it is the first in an intended history of science in Edinburgh series - near the location of the house where James Hutton died.
The cache is a small lock box - no room for proper swaps but should hold small TB's and coins. It contains just a log book and pencil. It can be accessed from steps below or a ramp from above for wheelchair/buggy access - although the cache itself is not wheelchair accessible.
There are other geo-caches that pay tribute to James Hutton, notably one on Arthur's Seat (Weir's Way: An Edinburgh Volcano) and another at Siccar Point on the East Coast of Scotland near Cockburnspath.
This one is located near the site of the house that he built and moved into in the early 1770's and where he died in 1797.
James Hutton - another of the great unsung heroes of the Scottish Enlightenment - is widely credited with the theories that placed the age of the earth as "immeasurably old." He based his work on his own personal geological observations - confronting the other theories of the time, amongst them those of biblical creationism - and is probably most famous for what is known as Hutton's Unconformity at Siccar Point off the east coast of Scotland.
He was born in Edinburgh on 3rd June 1726 to William Hutton and Sarah Balfour. His father held the office of Edinburgh city treasurer and owned farms in the borders which James inherited and lived on - forming many of his geological ideas from his observations there. James' father died when he was only two years old and he was subsequently brought up by his mother alone.
He entered Edinburgh High School in 1736 and Edinburgh University in 1740. He graduated in 1743. He had a brief career as a solicitor, but returned to the University in 1744 to study medicine - although his real interest was chemistry - a subject which fascinated him. His studies were interrupted in 1745 by the Jacobite rebellion when Edinburgh had to be defended.
It is likely that he fathered an illegitimate child - and in order to avoid the scandal went to Paris to continue his studies, then moving to Leiden to complete them. When he returned to the UK he lived in London then on a farm in Norfolk for two years.
Whilst in London he spent time on chemical studies, discovering with James Davie (an Edinburgh school-friend) how to make sal-ammoniac, a substance used in welding metal. He and Davie set up a factory in Edinburgh to make this substance, which provided Hutton with an income for life.
Hutton's interest in geology developed during the early 1750's. He moved to one of the farms he had inherited in 1754 where he farmed and worked on his theories.
He returned to live in Edinburgh in 1767. This was at a time now known as The Scottish Enlightenment where intellectual activity in the city was at fever pitch.
Hutton used his own personal observations of the rocks around him to understand the history of the Earth rather than the Bible.
He realised that the process of rock formation and erosion was a very slow cyclic one - and that therefore the earth had to be immeasurably old - well beyond the 6000 years or so suggested based on biblical study. He lacked the technology to determine the actual age (which has only been done within the last 50 years or so.)
In 1784 the Royal Society of Edinburgh invited Hutton to give two lectures on his theories. The first of these was actually delivered by his friend the chemist Joseph Black (who discovered Carbon Dioxide) because Hutton himself was ill. Hutton did give the second lecture.
Not surprisingly, his lectures challenged the established wisdom and stirred up some controversy.
In 1788 he undertook a now famous expedition with his great friend John Playfair and Sir James Hall. They took a boat along the North Sea coast of Scotland to examine the rock formations in the cliffs - this was the expedition where Siccar Point was identified - now a place of homage for all geologists and other interested parties.
Hutton died in 1797 at his house in St John's Hill.
After Hutton's death, his friend John Playfair undertook a number of further expeditions to seek out rock formations to support his theories and spent a number of years writing up his notes.
This small 'rock' garden was developed in 2001 and completed in 2002. It bears a bronze plaque on a stone at its centre - and at the entrance is a key to the various rocks placed within it.
Suggested Further Reading: The Man Who Found Time: James Hutton and the Discovery of the Earth's Antiquity by Jack Repcheck.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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