{"id":411,"date":"2009-10-24T16:44:20","date_gmt":"2009-10-24T15:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/?p=411"},"modified":"2009-10-24T16:44:20","modified_gmt":"2009-10-24T15:44:20","slug":"shell-sand-at-aikerness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/2009\/10\/shell-sand-at-aikerness\/","title":{"rendered":"Shell Sand at Aikerness"},"content":{"rendered":"

A rare type of rock called Aeolianite (shell sand) can be found at Aikerness in Orkney.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A fine example of Aeolianite<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

One of the finest examples of Aeolianite can be found in a farm field on the Orkney mainland.<\/p>\n

In areas where the sea is rich in shellfish, tiny particles of crushed shell combine with the sand, eroded from the local sandstone to combine Shell sand.<\/p>\n

Aeolianite was formed around 10,ooo years ago, probably about the same time that Skara Brae<\/a> became inhabited.<\/p>\n

This lime rich sand was used by local farmers to improve their agricultural land.<\/p>\n

Although the soil has low fertility, it drains well and regular grazing by rabbits allows smaller plant species to thrive which would otherwise be crowed out by the grasses.<\/p>\n

Plants found in this area include; Eyebright, Lady’s Bedstraw, Wild Thyme, Fairy Flax and Stiff Sand Grass.<\/p>\n

\"Eyebright\"<\/a>
Eyebright<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The site is on private land at Aikerness Farm but access is kindly granted by the owners.<\/p>\n

Great care is advised as the rocks and plants in this reserve area are very fragile and easily damaged.<\/p>\n

Find out more:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scottish Geology <\/a>– Find out more about the geology of Scotland.
\nThe Geological Society<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A rare type of rock called Aeolianite (shell sand) can be found at Aikerness in Orkney. One of the finest examples of Aeolianite can be found in a farm field on the Orkney mainland. In areas where the sea is rich in shellfish, tiny particles of crushed shell combine with the sand, eroded from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[793],"tags":[511,784,347,780,778,787,792,791,782,776,212,781,786,783,771,773,790,769,52,772],"class_list":["post-411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-geology","tag-agricultural-land","tag-bedstraw","tag-caption","tag-eyebright","tag-fertility","tag-flax","tag-geological-society","tag-geology-of-scotland","tag-grasses","tag-ooo","tag-orkney-mainland","tag-plant-species","tag-private-land","tag-rabbits","tag-rare-type","tag-sandstone","tag-scottish-geology","tag-shell-sand","tag-skara-brae","tag-tiny-particles","entry","has-post-thumbnail"],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/author\/admin\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=411"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":416,"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411\/revisions\/416"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.spirit-of-orkney.com\/contents1a\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}