Fossils found in Inverness paving slab came as no surprise to Castletown heritage group
The discovery of fossils embedded within a Caithness flagstone in Inverness city centre caught the attention of the media – but came as no surprise to heritage volunteers in the flagstone village of Castletown.
“In fact,” Muriel Murray of Castletown Heritage Society remarked, “it was a little disappointing that it was found so close to home!”
Flagstone from Caithness was exported around the world, as far as Australia and South America.
The Inverness fossilised fish remains, which predate the age of the dinosaurs by 140 million years, were found by James Ryan in a paving slab outside the Town House.
He works at the National Trust for Scotland’s museum in Cromarty dedicated to geologist Hugh Miller.
“Caithness flagstone, which the pavements in Inverness are made from, was laid down as sediment over a period of thousands of years at the bottom of a giant freshwater lake which stretched from the Moray coast up to Orkney and Shetland,” Mr Ryan explained.
“These fossils in the paving slab are the remains of ancient fish dating to around 385 million years ago – around 140 million years before the first dinosaur.”
Castletown Heritage Society operates the award-winning Castlehill Heritage Centre as a visitor attraction and educational resource, with a strong focus on the local flagstone industry.
Mrs Murray said: “Caithness flagstone has travelled all over the world since James Traill of Castlehill founded his flagstone export business in the early 1800s.
“The summer exhibition at Castlehill Heritage Centre has showcased the story of this industry with photos, tools, portraits, maps and examples of stone.
“Furthermore, in a couple of weeks, a date chosen to coincide with Doors Open Days and the Scottish Geology Festival, the centre is giving visitors the chance to catch a first sight of the fossil fish and other fossils collected by renowned collector Jack Saxon of Thurso.
“Castletown Heritage Society is indebted to his family for donating the widely acclaimed collection.”
The fossils outside the Town House in the Highland capital date from the Devonian period. As far as Mr Ryan is aware, his discovery is the first recorded in Inverness’s paving.
“Whilst fossil fish are known in pavements in cities like Glasgow and Edinburgh, to my knowledge these fossils [in Inverness] seem to have gone amiss,” he said.
“I brought them to the attention of a palaeontologist who studies these fossils and they were not aware of them. The staff at Inverness museum likewise were not aware of these fossils either.”
Castlehill Heritage Centre will be taking part in Doors Open Days 2024 on Sunday, September 22 (2pm to 4pm). It is one of 25 venues across Caithness and Sutherland involved in the annual festival that sees organisations and volunteers offer free access to locations across Scotland.
