The age of the lower part of the New Red Sandstone of South-West Scotland

Abstract

The discovery of plants of Westphalian D age in a thin bed of sediment near the base of the ‘Permian’ Volcanic Group of Ayrshire has thrown doubt on the Permian age of the New Red Sandstone rocks throughout south-west Scotland. A review of the available evidence suggests that the greater part of the New Red Sandstone lavas and sediments of Ayrshire, Sanquhar and Thornhill and probably also part of the ‘Permian’ rocks of Arran may be Carboniferous. It seems likely that the base of the New Red Sandstone in the Southern Uplands is diachronous, and the basal beds in the Solway Basin and in North-West England may be considerably younger than the New Red Sandstone of Ayrshire.