Fossil Grove

A party of our U3A Geology Group was given a detailed tour of Fossil Grove in Victoria Park, Glasgow by David Webster; David was our guide for our trip to Islay earlier in the year.

Still in their original position, the fossils are eleven stumps of trees, roots and fallen branches discovered in 1887 during construction of a path through an old roadstone quarry. They have been identified as being from a species of Lepidodendron, or Scale Trees, related to modern Club Mosses. The stems were hollow, filled with pith and not woody and when flooding occurred became filled with sandy deposits and gradually fossilised. The thin outer layer eroded, leaving a pattern of the inside of the stem.

The Grove is now a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Following this we travelled to the Necropolis for a guided tour of the wide range of stone types used for the monuments, by which time the rain had ceased.