This time we checked the opening times, made sure that there were no public holidays on (not even Glasgow City Council could use Oak Apple Day as an excuse surely) and even packed lunch supplies (ie we stopped at a newsagents to buy salt-laden Dairylea concoctions).

Arriving at Victoria Park we were greeted with this sight:

It's Open!

Not only was it open, it was actually staffed! (albeit by a guy sitting in a van eating his lunch).

We headed inside to have a good nosey around.

The view inside.

8 or 9 stumps can be seen from the viewing platform, many with their roots visible and intact. The casts of the trees are so good in places that you can clearly see the impressions of the ‘bark’ preserved. Also preserved are sections of trunk and branches scattered around on the floor.

Trunk Section

Illuminated Stump

Note the preserved surface details

The walls of the building itself have displays explaining the formation of the deposits, as well as describing the location at the time of fossilisation. Examples of various plant and animal life are shown, including some samples donated from the Hunterian Museum.

How these fossils formed

Interestingly, when discovered these deposits also included organic material left on the trees from fossilised plant material. This has since been removed or weathered off (I wonder if anyone got a sample of this; it might be worth looking at from a biomarker perspective).

Bark Impressions

Finally, after a good nose around, we went and played in the sun for a while:

"Race you to the top!"

And that’s all folks! For the previous posts in this series look here.

Once again I highly recommend the Geological Society of Glasgow’s guidebook: Geological Excursions around Glasgow & Girvan (ISBN: 0-902892-09-6),

Open Thursday–Monday 10am–4pm, late March–late September

I decided to give it another go. So, with Jono in tow we walked out from the Transport Museum to Fossil Grove (approx 1.8 miles on a lovely day).

When we finally arrived, we were greeted with this sight:

Closed. AGAIN.

Since this was a Friday, at about 1:30pm, we had every expectation of the place being open for viewing. A phone call to the Culture & Sport Visitor Services got me the following answers:

a) The text from the leaflet read out to me

b) It might be a public holiday (technically it was a Spring Bank Holiday, but nowhere really closes for those in Scotland).

c) It’s the parks department’s responsibility…

Hmmm… methinks a strongly worded e-mail to the parks department might be in order.

Hazel and Emma looking Sad

As Might be Evident from this picture, the place is locked up. It’s almost as if some idiot forgot to check when it was open…

Open Thursday–Monday 10am–4pm, late March–late September

Crap. I’m just not used to rocks having opening times.

In any event, we decided to make the best of things by having a wander around the park itself. Fossil Grove is situated in a Whinstone quarry, meaning that we should at least have some Quartz-Dolerite sills to look at.

The quarry has been turned into a rather attractive rock garden which, despite some graffiti issues, is a lovely little area of the park. We clambered up the side of the sill to have a little nosey at the rocks. We were also able to examine the centre of the sill, where it had been cut through to make a pathway. Here we could see a noticeable difference in grain size; with the slower cooled centre having much larger crystals. None of this really came out with my camera, but here’s a picture of me and Hazel clambering up it.

Checking out the Dolerite Sill

The day wasn’t entirely a waste on the Palaeobiology front however, since Hazel did manage to find some dinosaurs! (In an area of Lower Carboniferous sediments, and Late Carboniferous sills – not exactly the place you’d expect).

Hazel Finds a Dinosaur

Some pictures of Fossil Grove can be found here, and we might try and pop back sometime this week or next week (hopefully on a day when it’s actually open to the public).

Recommended Reading:

More Info From the Geological Society of Glasgow [446kb PDF]
Lawson, J.D. & Weedon, D.S. 1992. Geological Excursions around Glasgow & Girvan. Geological Society of Glasgow.