The Phoenix has risen from the ashes.: Fossil Hunt with LLangollen camera club 26.3.2014

This view is of Dinas Bran also known as "Crow Castle"

The LLangollen camera club every January at the A.G.M. meeting, we all discuss the year to come and anything else that members may want to bring up. Our day trips out are something we all look forward to but due to the unpredictability of the British weather, last year the fossil hunt didn't go ahead. I had been disappointed as it sounded a great experience and exciting to think what had been there so many years before.

A view of The Panorama

This year we had arranged to meet at the Sun Trevor pub. I had my hiking sticks ready in the car from previous walks. We all started to walk slowly up the inclining road until we eventually got to the cattle grid. A club member Joan often goes to this location with her grandchildren so was familiar with the area and what dangers we could encounter.Once we had arrived at the first area we all started to look for fossils and get our cameras out. We were blessed with good weather as the day before it had been dull with rain, but we had sun between the clouds and little wind.

Some of the group fossil hunting

Joan took us all a little further and what a sight for sore eyes - we all were there with our bottoms in the air, hunched over, eagerly searching within the rocks to see what each of us could find and then - who had found the best fossil. As Joan had more experience many of us were asking if we had found anything we could class as a good find.

A collection of sheep skulls we found

Time soon passed by. We all gathered for a couple of group photos of our trip out and Colin, who is a joker among many in the club, happened to say he had found a great fossil. Many quickly dismissed his comment as a prank until he produced a large rock which was the best find out of the group.

Colin's great fossil find of the day

We were all feeling hungry and looked forward to a meal in the Sun Trevor. This is where our outing finished with us all having a look at what images everyone had taken. As always, finished the day with great memories and smiles on our faces. I enjoy being a part of this club and being in the company of such great individuals.

Club members who attended heading back towards the pub for lunch

Layers of different colours can be seen

"Eglweseg Rocks near Llangollen are formed from vast thicknesses of Silurian rocks. During most of the Silurian Period, Wales was covered by a narrowing ocean basin. Scotland was joined to part of North America and separated from us by the Iapetus ocean. The continents on either side of this ocean had been gradually moving together and met during the latter part of this period. The sediments in the lower part of the Silurian in Wales consist of vast thicknesses of muds, sands and grits. The upper part of the Silurian is represented by shallow water and deltaic sediments. The whole system was extensively studied by Roderick Impey Murchison who named it, in 1839, after an ancient South Wales tribe the Silures. The fossils represent a diverse fauna, with many new forms of trilobites, graptolites and brachiopods. The closure of the ancient ocean basin late in the Silurian created mountain ranges, river systems and coastal plains that provided ideal environments for the emergence and diversification of terrestrial land plants. The fossilised remains of these tiny plants are found in a few classic localities in mid Wales."

Info above taken from web link below

http://education.gtj.org.uk/en/item1/28880