29th Sept 2016 - Rock Walk

29th September 2016 - Dublin Geology Rock Walk

SPE Ireland & PESGB’s Dublin Geology Rocks Walk!

29th September 2016

An informative and interesting Dublin Rocks Walk was hosted by Fergal Murphy. The tour started at the Oscar Wilde statue in Merrion Park, which is made from a collection of exotic and colourful rock types. Next it was on to see a fantastic Lower Carboniferous (Tournaisian) fossiliferous limestone on Kildare street, full of Crinoids, brachiopods and corals. The Early Georgian (1712-32) Old Library in Trinity College was the next stop where the Lower floor is Calp (Palmerstown quarry) and the upper floors are granite from near Blessington. After stopping on Suffolk St. to see  St. Andrew’s church and note the coarse muscovite crystals in the granite and going over to O’Neill’s Bar across the street to see the red gneiss and green pegmatite cladding, it was on to see the Starbucks on Foster Place which  has been refaced with Portland Stone and Westmoreland Green Slate which is a metamorphosed volcanic ash. The cobble stones are of Diorite from Charles Stewart Parnell’s quarry at Avondale, Ordovician aged 460 Ma. The final stop of the walk was the Bank Bar made from Triassic Sherwood Sandstone, probably from Cheshire 240 Ma. After the tour, which lasted about an hour, it was on into the Bank Bar for some socialising, kindly sponsered by GeoNua Ltd.  

 

 Below: Fergal Murphy discussing the Oscar Wilde statue geology

  

Below; Fossiliferous carboniferous limestone on Kildare Street


 

Below: Old Library in Trinity College



Below: Afters in the Bank Bar