We are delighted – excited even! – to announce our first in-person meeting of 2023 on:
Tuesday, March 7, at 7.30pm
Dr Katie Strang will present ‘Scotland in the age of coal’.
Katie is a trustee of the Scottish Geology Trust whose mission is to ‘inspire people everywhere to understand, love and care for Scotland’s incredible geological heritage and its role in creating a sustainable future’.
The Carboniferous rocks that underlie parts of central and southern Scotland were fundamental to the industrial development of these regions.
The location of collieries, limeworks and the iron and steel industries – alongside the distribution of our towns and the consequent developments to infrastructure – were due to the existence of economically valuable deposits of coal, ironstone and limestone within these sediments.
Although industry has left its own legacy, it is thanks to the exploration and exploitation of these deposits that we have been able to collect a vast amount of detailed knowledge on these rocks, particularly in terms of the palaeontological heritage.
Katie will look at some of the incredible fossils that can be found and the kind of life that once thrived when Scotland lay at low equatorial latitudes over 300 million years ago.
You can tell why we’re excited!
The talk will be held in the Ormidale Pavilion in Brodick and is free admission to ANHS members or by a £3 donation to society funds.
Featured image shows a shark’s tooth in limestone. Credit: Katie Strang.