Rocks and Roll
Bit a departure this time.
My wife was at a school summer fete a few weeks ago and bought our son a fossil hunting kit for a pound. Basically it was a sandstone fossil encased in light plaster with a little hammer, chisel and goggles so you could have a go at 'excavating' your fossil. Anyway, my wee fella was really taken with this and has been showing everyone his fish fossil (on the left). I mentioned this to my colleagues, one of whom studied geology at university and tipped me off to a good place about 30 minutes drive away where Jurassic fossils are easy to find. I'd never heard of this before in spite of knowing the area pretty well. One problem is that it is along a stretch of busy and fairly dangerous road where most people wouldn't bother to stop.
So we set off this morning in the lashing rain, but by the time we got there it had completely dried up and we had a fun and interesting hour picking around in the rocks and came up with these fossils of ammonites and what appears to be a bone of some sort, maybe a fish tail. We probably missed lots more so we'll be back now we know what we are looking for.
Not exactly Sam Neill in 'Jurassic Park,' but not bad for a Sunday morning in Northern Ireland.
My wife was at a school summer fete a few weeks ago and bought our son a fossil hunting kit for a pound. Basically it was a sandstone fossil encased in light plaster with a little hammer, chisel and goggles so you could have a go at 'excavating' your fossil. Anyway, my wee fella was really taken with this and has been showing everyone his fish fossil (on the left). I mentioned this to my colleagues, one of whom studied geology at university and tipped me off to a good place about 30 minutes drive away where Jurassic fossils are easy to find. I'd never heard of this before in spite of knowing the area pretty well. One problem is that it is along a stretch of busy and fairly dangerous road where most people wouldn't bother to stop.
So we set off this morning in the lashing rain, but by the time we got there it had completely dried up and we had a fun and interesting hour picking around in the rocks and came up with these fossils of ammonites and what appears to be a bone of some sort, maybe a fish tail. We probably missed lots more so we'll be back now we know what we are looking for.
Not exactly Sam Neill in 'Jurassic Park,' but not bad for a Sunday morning in Northern Ireland.
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