The Upper Old Red Sandstone of Fife and Kinross: a fluviatile sequence with evidence of marine incursion

Abstract

Synopsis Arenaceous redbeds in the eastern part of the Stirlingshire-Fife Upper Old Red Sandstone basin are described, and a new system of nomenclature is proposed for the lithostratigraphical units recognized. Sedimentological features, including palaeocurrent data, indicate that deposition was controlled by an eastward-dipping palaeoslope, and that most of the sequence was laid down in fluviatile environments. Evidence is put forward to show that a wedge of sandstone up to about 110 m thick near the top of the sequence represents the deposits of a marine transgression that advanced westwards into the basin, beginning not long after the deposition of a distinctive faunal horizon of Famennian or Tournaisian age. The transgression did not penetrate into the Stirlingshire part of the basin, and the regression, which was accompanied by uplift of the source areas, allowed fluviatile conditions to spread back eastwards into the Fife and Kinross area once more. There may locally be a disconformable relationship between the Upper Old Red Sandstone and the overlying Calciferous Sandstone Measures, but there is no detectable angular unconformity between the two sets of strata.

Stratigraphy of the lower Calciferous Sandstone Measures in Fife

“…3038 Bore. Although the Ballagan Beds are known to rest on the Kinnesswood Formation at Navitie Hill (Geikie 1900, p. 43;Chisholm and Dean 1974) and also at Kingskettle, the nature of the strata above them is not known except that at Auchmuir they are overlain sharply by yellow sandstones typical of the upper part of the Calciferous Sandstone Measures rather than the Calcareous sandstones of west Fife.…”

“…The Balcomie Beds, as Forsyth and Chisholm (1977, p. 7) noted, are in fact quite different from any other Upper Old Red Sandstone sediments exposed in the Fife area (cf. Chisholm and Dean 1974).…”

Aeolian sediments in the late Devonian of the Scottish Midland Valley

“…Localities mentioned in text: 1 Dumbarton, 2 Croftamie, 3 Boquhan, 4 Glen Burn, 5 Dura Den. Palaeocurrent rose diagrams relate to aeolian facies only; localities 4 and 5 after Chisholm and Dean, 1974. d o w n w a r d -w e d g i n g units of grainflow origin interbedded with the finely laminated sandstone. T h e resulting structures are similar to those illustrated by Hunter (1977) from Recent dune sands in Texas.…”

Heavy mineral distribution in the Old Red Sandstone of the North-Eastern Midland Valley of Scotland

“…The stratigraphic subdivisions within the Lower Old Red Sandstone are based on the work of Campbell (1913) and Armstrong and Patterson (1970). Upper Old Red Sandstone divisions are those of Chisholm and Dean (1974). conglomerates, with boulders up to a metre long derived from a range of Highland and other (unknown) sources.…”

“…Nevertheless, many deposits, particularly angular fanglomerates, are of localized origin. Chisholm and Dean (1974) suggested that Stirlingshire was a broad alluvial plain with streams flowing in a general easterly or south-easterly direction. Deposition was probably slow, cornstones are frequent and are taken as evidence of an arid or semi-arid climate.…”