27-586: The Fossil Grove is a group of plant fossils located within Victoria Park , Glasgow , Scotland . It was discovered in 1887 and contains the fossilised stumps and the stigmarian system of eleven extinct Lepidodendron lycopsids, which are sometimes described as " giant club mosses " but are more closely related to quillworts . The Fossil Grove is managed as a museum and has been a popular tourist attraction since it opened for public viewing in 1890. The site, Glasgow's most ancient visitor attraction and
54-599: A cost of about £400, constructed a building to contain the fossils. On 1 January 1890, the Fossil House covering the Fossil Grove opened to the public. The wooden roof timbers of the House were replaced with metal trusses in the 1920s. A bomb damaged the roof and a single trunk during World War II , and a concrete spacer replaced the center of the damaged trunk. The windowed roof was replaced with regular roof panels in
81-483: A park, and the Fossil Grove was discovered in late 1887 when a pilot channel was cut through an old quarry in preparation for the construction of a road in the park. In April 1888 members of the Geological Society of Glasgow suggested to leave the fossils in situ and construct a building around the fossils. The commissioners of Partick elected to leave the fossils where they were uncovered and in 1889, at
108-551: A plashy place, A lug-worm with its grey and muddy mouth Sang that somewhere to north or west or south There dwelt a gay, exulting, gentle race Under the golden or the silver skies Cartoonist Piers Baker created a syndicated comic strip called Ollie and Quentin , with a buddy storyline about Ollie, a seagull and Quentin, a lugworm. The strip originated in the UK in 2002, with King Features Syndicate introducing it to international syndication in early 2008. Baker considers
135-406: A south-western flow of the flood waters. The trunks were then buried and lithified , and became molds in the surrounding sandstone. The sand inside the trunks became solid rock, and the outer bark of the lycopsids became a thin layer of coal. Though some trunks are elliptical, especially the tallest, Lepidodendron lycopsids were typically circular. The deformations were likely caused by the force of
162-616: Is also the home ground of the Glasgow Centurions Touch Rugby Club. The park also hosts a 5 km parkrun every Saturday and a 2 km junior parkrun every Sunday. The park featured in the Scottish sitcom Still Game in the episode 'Hot Seat'. The programme features views of the park and scenes of the surrounding area. The park is also featured in Limmy's Show, in a sketch in which Limmy bemoans
189-477: Is an oak sculpture of a lycopod tree with a giant centipede. The sculpture was constructed in 2014 to commemorate the 20th Commonwealth Games . 55°52′36″N 4°20′18″W / 55.8767°N 4.3382°W / 55.8767; -4.3382 Victoria Park, Glasgow Victoria Park is a 20-hectare (50-acre) park located in the west of Glasgow , Scotland , adjacent to the districts of Scotstoun , Whiteinch , Jordanhill and Broomhill . The park
216-504: Is anchored at one end. The larvae hatching from the eggs feed on the jelly and eventually break out when they have grown to a dozen segments and are beginning to resemble their parents. They burrow into the sand, usually higher up the beach than the adults, and gradually move down the beach as they get older. A singing lugworm figures in The Man Who Dreamed of Faeryland by William Butler Yeats : But while he passed before
243-474: The 1970s. Today the building continues to be maintained by Glasgow City Council. The Fossil Grove Trust (along with Historic Scotland) are working with the Council to improve the drainage, ventilation, and interpretation of the site. Friends of Victoria Park are establishing a fernery in the adjacent quarry area. The fossil lycopsids are designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest . As of July 2022,
270-405: The Fossil Grove is open from 12:00 to 4:00 p.m. only on the third Sunday of the month, from April to October, and the surrounding park is always open. The Fossil House has stone and tarmac paths and a few stone steps, and is wheelchair accessible. The walk around the entire quarry is about 400 m (1,300 ft) long. Admission is free. About 50 m (160 ft) east of the Fossil House
297-479: The Grove is covered with shale that was deposited as mud in a major flooding episode, and this deposition of sediment knocked over and killed the lycopsids. The soft tissues of the cortical meristem and inner phelloderm of the lycopsids then decomposed and made the lycopsid and their underground systems hollow, and subsequent flood waters filled the hollow lycopsid stumps with sand. Ripple marks on some surfaces indicate
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#1732787820042324-811: The Indian Summer music festival. The park is also home to the Victoria Cricket and Hyndland RFC rugby club. Throughout the summer, the Countryside Rangers arrange walks to educate children about the environment. The park is now home to the fledgling Scottish Australian Rules Football League clubs, the Glasgow Sharks and the Glasgow Magpies and is understood to be the UK's only dedicated Australian Rules Football ground. It
351-566: The fossils belong to the Limestone Coal Formation of the Clackmannan Group , with the shale containing imprints of various plant remains. The strata were deposited approximately 325 million years ago when the tree-like plants were still alive, and the strata are now tilted and cut by many faults and slant downwards to the northeast. The quarry in which the fossils were found is an igneous dolerite sill that
378-647: The inscription "Now is the day of salvation, Now is the accepted time, Now is the day of Salvation". The gates were paid for by local women who subscribed a penny each, said to be partly in gratitude for providing work for their men and partly for keeping them sober, Whiteinch having been designated a "dry" area. Isdale Robertson was an active member of the Whiteinch United Free Church and a dedicated promoter of temperance . He joined Partick Town Council in November 1903 on that platform. By 1978 it
405-407: The lycopsids rather than the woody interior. The remnants of trunks belonged to Lepidodendron veltheimianum lycopods and the underground systems are called under the form taxon, Stigmaria . The common species of Stigmaria ficoides were discovered from the site. Most trunks are 1–3 ft (0.30–0.91 m) in diameter and 2–3 ft (0.61–0.91 m) tall, and a single larger stump stands in
432-417: The poor state of the railings around the park. Arenicola Arenicola , also known as sandworms , is a genus of capitellid annelid worms comprising the lugworms and black lugs. The following species are recognised in the genus Arenicola : A lugworm lives in a U-shaped burrow in sand. The U is made of an L-shaped gallery lined with mucus, from the toe of which a vertical unlined shaft runs up to
459-406: The remnants of an extensive ancient forest, is viewed from within a building constructed to protect the fossils from the elements. The Fossil Grove is on a 23 m (75 ft) by 10 m (33 ft) floor of an old quarry, and belongs to the same geological time period as several other groups of Lepidodendron fossils found northwest of Glasgow . The shales and sandstones exposed around
486-460: The rising flood waters that filled the trunks with sand, as indicated by the tendency for the deformations to be in the same direction as the ripple marks, towards the south-west. Besides the fossil stumps, the only other indications of organic life in the strata of the Fossil Grove are Arenicola burrows found in some sandstone beds. In 1885 part of the Scotstoun estate was leased to create
513-470: The sand in the saucer-shaped depression. When it first digs its burrow the lugworm softens the sand in its head shaft by pushing its head up into it with a piston action. After that the sand is kept loose by a current of water driven through the burrow from the hind end by the waves of contraction passing along the worm's body. Once it burrows into the sand a lugworm seldom leaves it. It can stay there for weeks on end, sometimes changing its position slightly in
540-418: The sand. But it may leave the burrow completely and re-enter the sand, making a fresh burrow for breeding but for 2 days in early October there is a mass breeding event. This is when all the lugworms liberate their ova and sperms into the water above, and there the ova are fertilized. The ova are enclosed in tongue-shaped masses of jelly about 8 inches long, 3 inches wide and 1 inch thick. Each mass
567-407: The surface. This is a head shaft. At the surface the head shaft is marked by a small saucer-shaped depression. The tail shaft, 2 to 3 in (5.1 to 7.6 cm) from it, is marked by a highly coiled cast of sand. The lugworm lies in this burrow with its head at the base of the head shaft, swallowing sand from time to time. This makes the columns of sand drop slightly, so there is a periodic sinking of
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#1732787820042594-464: The trunks. The Lepidodendron lycopods would have grown during the Carboniferous period when Scotland was a more tropical area, situated near the equator. These lycopsids grew in a low, swampy environment that would often flood. The distribution of the trunks suggests that the Grove was once part of a Paleozoic forest that was chiefly composed of Lepidodendron lycopsids. The sandstone in
621-421: The western part of the grove, measuring 3–4 ft (0.91–1.22 m) in diameter. The trunks are preserved in their original growth positions. Some fossils have small wrinkles on their exterior, suggesting wrinkled bark, but fine details are poorly preserved in the fossils. The root-like appendages have the dichotomous branching pattern indicative of Stigmaria rhizomes and extend over 10 ft (3.0 m) from
648-502: The work of building the park was supervised by Isdale Robertson (1848–1904) who had his premises in Anderson Street, Partick. The workforce was made up of unemployed men in need of an occupation to see them through a difficult period. It was this team of men who unearthed the fossil grove. It was also at the insistence of Isdale that the four faced clock was placed in the park. According to his adopted daughter, Meg Crerar, it bore
675-494: Was created and named for Queen Victoria 's jubilee in 1887. The main entrances to the park are from Westland Drive, Victoria Park Drive North, and Balshagray Avenue. The Friends of Victoria Park (FoVP) is a West Glasgow group set up to protect and develop Victoria Park. There are a number of features within Victoria Park: Victoria Park has the following facilities; At the instigation of the Council,
702-474: Was intruded into the sediments and two of the trunks during the Early Permian period approximately 290 million years ago. The dolerite was used to macadamize nearby roads. The lycopsids were only discovered after the quarry was abandoned when it was landscaped into the new Victoria Park. The stumps themselves are internal casts of the hollow lycopsids, representing the huge cortical meristem of
729-619: Was still a "dry" area. The park was formally opened by the Provost of Partick, Sir Andrew McLean on 2 July 1887. The arboretum section of the park was originally designed as an educational facility. During the 1960s, a large section of the park was removed in order to make way for the approach roads to the Clyde Tunnel and Expressway. Victoria Park plays host to several events such as the Whiteinch Fair Festival and
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