Leny Quarry

Also within

Stirling and Falkirk County LochLomond National Park National Park

Condition (NatureScot)

Geology & landscape

Mining / Industrial: Quarry · Geological Period: Cambrian, Precambrian · Rock Type: Limestone

Description

LENY QUARRY Leny Quarry SSSI is located 2 km northwest of Callander. It provides exposures of rocks of the Highland Border Complex that occur in intimate association with the Highland Boundary Fault. At Leny Quarry, the Highland Border Complex comprises a sequence of shales (layered muds) and the Leny Limestone, which contains fossils of marine fauna. Leny Quarry lies stratigraphically in the upper part of the Upper Dalradian of the Highland Border region, in the past regarded as being wholly of Precambrian age. The discovery of a Lower Cambrian trilobite fauna in the Leny Limestone at this site, containing Pagetides and other forms, has necessitated a re-evaluation of the stratigraphic relations of great thicknesses of rock in this area. By implication, a large part of the Dalradian may be of Cambrian age necessitating a re-examination of the sedimentary and tectonic history of this complex area. The fauna appears to be related to those found in New York State and Nuneaton and suggests an age within the Protolenid – Strenuellid Zone (late Lower Cambrian) of the British zonal scheme. This site is of the greatest importance in British Lower Palaeozoic stratigraphy as it provides a key to the wider dating and correlation of these rocks with other regions of the British Isles.