From 10th to 22nd of April 2026, our PhDs Yessica, Lisa and Elisa travelled from Germany for field work in Scotland with their supervisors, Daniel and Barbara, to sample rocks and map Yessica’s main field area. The first part of the trip was by Loch Stornoway and its surroundings, and Alasdair Skelton, from Stockholm university, delighted us by his presence. As he had worked in the area before, he took the time to show and explain some really nice outcrops to us.

At Loch Stornoway, Yessica sampled some sills and the metasediments in contact, as she is interested in the carbonation reaction and the resulting fluids.

We had two rough days when the rain decided to lash down on us, but luckily after this episode the sun decided to show and warm us a bit.

The second part of the field trip was for Lisa’s samples. To study the chemical and mineralogical changes induced by low T-P fluid flow and transport mechanisms, she needs samples showing a distinct halo around the vein where fluid flowed. To find those, we went to the Firth of Clyde to visit Great Cumbrae island and Portencross. In those areas, the red old sandstone from the Caledonian foreland basin shows nice white halos around the veins.