23 June 2016
Mega-trace fossils in the floor of the Old Bushmills Distillery, Northern Ireland
Posted by Callan Bentley
We arrived at Old Bushmills at 4:06pm, and the last tour of the distillery for the day had left at 4:00. But all was not lost – We were delighted to see that the visitor center area was paved in slabs of shale with tremendously large, well-preserved trace fossils – sinuous burrows parallel to the bedding plane, in some cases cross-cutting or looping back over themselves!
Great stuff – balm for the disappointed whiskey tourist soul.
Callan Bentley is Associate Professor of Geology at Piedmont Virginia Community College in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is a Fellow of the Geological Society of America. For his work on this blog, the National Association of Geoscience Teachers recognized him with the James Shea Award. He has also won the Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council on Higher Education in Virginia, and the Biggs Award for Excellence in Geoscience Teaching from the Geoscience Education Division of the Geological Society of America. In previous years, Callan served as a contributing editor at EARTH magazine, President of the Geological Society of Washington and President the Geo2YC division of NAGT.
Posted, and acted out like a true geologist! Hope you make it to Saint James Gate. Enjoy your geology very much. Thank you for your blog.
Thanks. Yes, we stopped by St. James’ Gate when we were in Dublin the previous week. Sláinte!
“Well, what do you know; here we are at Bushmill’s and the last tour has left for the day. What to do… What to do…”
Funny, but I missed those when I was at the visitor center. Good catch!