The Giant Fossil Centipede Trail of North Arran
With the exciting news of a UNESCO Geopark delegation visiting Arran over the last few days, here is a piece from The Arran Naturalist (Issue 1, summer 1978) on the Arthropleura Trail in the North of Arran, a fossilized set of footprints which can be found a little further round the coastline from Hutton’s Unconformity, near Laggan. The Arthropleura was a giant centipede that lived around 300 million years ago and grew up to 2m, making it the largest invertebrate to have ever lived on land.
The Arran Geopark team reported on their Facebook page last week that, “Hans-Hartmut Escher, from Terra Vita Geopark in Germany, and Christophe Lansigu, from Bauge Geopark in France, on an “evaluation mission” that will determine whether the island will gain UNESCO Global Geopark status. They will be joined by Dr.Özlem Adiyaman Lopes, an observer from UNESCO in Paris. This is a really exciting time for Arran Geopark and is the culmination of many years of hard work by local volunteers in the community. The group will tour our island, on an action packed adventure, meeting local people, businesses, and other stakeholders between 27th June and 1st July. The assessors will write a comprehensive report which will recommend whether Arran is granted UNESCO status. The report will be discussed in a UNESCO Global Geopark Council meeting later this year – and if successful – we will officially become a UNESCO Global Geopark in spring 2025.”
