Glasgow Photo Library
- Fossil Grove
In 1887, while workmen were cutting a path through a disused whinstone quarry in Victoria Park (opened the previous year by the Queen herself, during her Golden Jubilee year) some unusual stone structures were found.
They 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.
In an inspirational move, it was decided not to take the fossils to a museum but to leave them where they were and protect them with a glass roofed shelter. There is an attractive rock garden outside in what used to be the quarry.
See also Places to Visit - Fossil Grove for more information and illustrations.
Go to the next Glasgow location: 
Gallery of Modern Art
Or return to the Glasgow Photo Library Index.
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