Fossil Grove
Fossil GroveVictoria ParkGlasgow Phone: 0141 287 2000 |
| Fossil Grove is Glasgow's most ancient attraction.
A unique treasure, situated in Victoria Park in the west of the city, the fossil trees uncovered by removal of the surrounding rocks are the remains of an ancient forest, around 330 million years old. Scottish National Heritage has designated the grove a site of Special Scientific Interest. In 1887, while workmen were cutting a path through a disused whinstone quarry in Victoria Park (opened the previous year by Queen Victoria, during her Golden Jubilee year) some unusual stone structures were found. Careful excavation of the site uncovered the fossil remains were the sandstone casts of Carboniferous "Lepidodendron" trees. Carboniferous forests covered Scotland over 300 million years ago. While in some parts of the country, the trees became the coal seams which powered the Industrial Revolution, those in Victoria Park had been preserved in mud and shale which seeped into the trunks, preserving them. A building was erected to protect them from the elements. The most obvious feature of the site is the 11 fossil tree stumps, some of them up to 90 centimetres high, preserved in the position in which they once grew. A fallen trunk, about eight metres long, and other smaller fragments of branch and root, have also survived. A viewing balcony overlooks the fossils, and small displays provide information and interpret the site for visitors. |
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