This book tells the geological story of a landscape that was at the heart of Scotland's industrial revolution, a story that has been several hundred million years in the making. The patchwork of rocks forming the landscape of the Glasgow and Ayrshire area tells us about the disappearance of an ancient ocean and times when sandy deserts, shallow tropical seas, vast cool swamps and lava from volcanic eruptions covered the evolving landscape. Worn and moulded by ice sheets, the modern landscape continues to change through river and coastal erosion and human activity.