Luisa Hendry/Scottish GeologistA Scottish geologist, who went viral sharing her passion for rocks online, is hoping to inspire the next generation with her informative videos.
Luisa Hendry, known as the Scottish Geologist, gained over 100,000 followers on social media within one month after sharing her first video.
The now 33-year-old was on a trip in Durness with her mum when she decided to film herself talking about the rocks around them in 2022.
Luisa’s interest in geology started from a young age growing up in Largs on the Firth of Clyde, North Ayrshire.
Luisa Hendry/Scottish Geologist“Most geologists do start from a young age, but I didn’t realise you could go study geology at university until I was in fifth year, and I had chosen all the wrong subjects” she told STV News.
“I would go to the beach and bring home rocks and try to hammer them open to see if I could find crystals, so I was always interested in geology in general but it never dawned on me that you could study it.”
Luisa added that she also loved watching 90s geology based movies which spurred her passion on.
“I also really enjoyed watching bad 90s geology movies – Volcano, the film with Tommy Lee Jones in it, and Armageddon.”
Luisa did not have the Highers needed to study Earth science so went to college and completed a HNC which helped her to get into the University of Glasgow.
Luisa Hendry/Scottish GeologistAfter graduating she took up a job as a geotechnical engineer.
In 2024, after gaining more than more than 260,000 followers on Instagram, she left her job to pursue her passion for talking and writing about rocks full-time.
“It was really scary, I knew I was pregnant so I worried about it working, but if I didn’t put my full energy into it I would’ve never known,” she said.
Luisa, who welcomed her baby three weeks ago, now runs tours all over Scotland as well as hosting geology talks and carrying out partnership work on social media.
She is also working on a book, and hopes to do some television presenting.
“I’m going to write a bit more on my books, and then I’m going to do some educational workshops for everyone,” she said.
She said she hopes to get more people involved in geology, especially in Scotland.
“I love teaching people about geology, especially Scotland’s geology because it’s mad,” she said.
“We’ve got just about every rock type you can get in Scotland bar a few, and there’s just a vast majority of geology.”
Scotland’s geology includes Lewisian Gneiss, a favourite of Luisa’s, who described the rocks as “absolutely beautiful with an amazing history”.
At around three billion years old they are Scotland’s oldest rocks, some of the oldest in Europe, and found in parts of the Hebrides and north-west Highlands.
“You think about how old the Earth is, and these rocks have been there for a majority of it. The geology of Scotland is just fascinating and there have been so many different discoveries here.
She added: “You can go across 500 miles and come across all these different rock formations, as well as this fault lines, it’s just mental, you get people coming from all over to study them, some of the first discoveries were discovered in Scotland.
“You go 500 miles in the USA or Australia and it’s the same rock type. You just don’t get that in many places, we’re so lucky here in Scotland.”
Follow STV News on WhatsApp
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
