The Drongs is a series of thin, granite pinnacles. They include a
30m-high rock pillar known prosaically by climbers as Slender
Drong, the 60m high Main Drong and the two smaller stacks, Slim
Drong and Stumpy Drong, both 15m high. A team consisting of Mick
Fowler, Andy Nisbet, Jon Lincoln and Craig Jones climbed all four
in a seven day period in 1992. All four stacks are rated as severe
to hard very severe.
David Henry Parry (1793-1826) drew The Drongs for Samuel Hibbert's "Description of the Shetland Islands' published 1822.
The Drongs in 1980 (Shetland Museum)
The Drongs, Hillswick - Streetmap extract
Stacks
Definition: pillar-like eroded remnant of a coastal cliff, with margins often defined by major fractures. Stac Gaelic - a rock pillar
Stacks
can be
formed by loss of
the keystone
of an arch
in response
to marine
erosion.
Stacks can
also develop
directly from
erosion the
cliff face or headland
where the
overlying rock
is not
strong enough
to form
a supporting
roof.
Stacks may
form
relatively rapidly
through selective
erosion along
weaknesses in
otherwise resistant
rock.
Once isolated
from a
host cliff
the stack
can become
a relatively
persistent feature,
although we know next to nothing about the survival time of
stacks. The stacks
may have
few joints
and erode more
slowly in
comparison with
the retreating
cliff. Secondary
arches may
develop within
the stack
where strong
local joint
in patterns
are exploited
by marine
processes.
Eventually the stack
will collapse leaving
a stack
remnant or
stump.
arches
caves
cliffs
cliff
top storm deposits
geos
gloups
headlands