Rocks of Cork
Welcome to the Rock Museum!
As mentioned, the two main types of rocks in Cork City are the Old Red Sandstone and the limestone; each representing Cork's red and white colours. Both of them show incredible evidence of what Cork looked like hundreds of millions of years ago.
But don't just take our word for it. Have a look at our rock museum below. Here you can interact with scanned 3D-models of Cork's rocks and read fascinating facts about them by clicking on the annotations.
Archaeopteris hibernica fossil - one of the first trees on Earth
Archaeopteris is the name of the species of one of the first trees in Earth's history. At the end of the Devonian period, these early trees began to dominate the surface of the Earth. The fact that we see evidence of this in the Old Red Sandstone layers here in Cork City is impressive in itself! This plant fossil was collected from somewhere in Glanmire. Unfortunately, it's unclear if that means from Glanmire itself or Lower Glanmire Road, where a quarry known as Tivoli quarry once was located.
Blackrock Diamond - not a diamond, but an amethyst
The Carboniferous limestone is quite spectacular. While the Old Red Sandstone is made of sand and fine rock material, limestone is made almost entirely of mud and remains from marine organisms. As in the modern-day Bahamas and the Great Barrier Reef, countless numbers of sea creatures grow on the seafloor, constructing their skeletons and platforms from the chemical compound calcium carbonate. As they die, all that's left is the calcium carbonate structures.
This is what we find today as limestone, making up a huge part of Cork's foundation. Imagine all that limestone once was a great ocean with beautiful reefs teeming with life.
The limestone in Cork dates back to the Carboniferous Period, and can tell us a great deal about what the area was like back then. The grey cleaved limestone above is from the Little Island Formation, a layer of limestone rock particular to Cork.
The limestone in Cork dates back to the Carboniferous Period, and can tell us a great deal about what the area was like back then. The grey cleaved limestone above is from the Little Island Formation, a layer of limestone rock particular to Cork.