In the early 1960's an amateur
geologist, Mr Matthew Yuill, of
Glengarnock, discovered in
Saltcoats the location of woodland
which existed, he claimed, about
250 million years ago. While
searching at low tide on a rocky
part of the shore for outcrops of
coal which are known to exist in the
area, Mr Yuill came across fossilised
tree stumps. At the time it was is
believed to be the largest
unrecorded forest of fossilised tress
in the country.
The discovery was reported to the Geological Society of Glasgow who subsequently came to visit them. The fossils were reported as having being exposed as a result of some freak storms. In total 26 tree stumps were revealed in the bay between the former Beach Pavilion and the harbour pier, several hundred yards from the promenade, which can be seen for about an hour at low tide.
Following the death of the trees, the upper parts of the stems snapped off and the soft heartwood rotted away leaving a hollow stump. Deposits of sandy material infilled these stumps producing the casts which now remain. Of the 26 specimens, the largest is about nineteen inches in diameter and the smallest is about twelve inches. A few of them are completely circular but most are oval in shape, indicating the pressures that the stumps were subject to over the centuries.
Unlike the 'Fossil Grove' in Victoria Park in Glasgow, which has more clearly defined stumps, to excavate down to the roots would have laid them open to attack by the elements. The Saltcoats fossils are however judged to be some millions of years younger than those at Victoria Park.
