The small bay immediately south of Seafield Tower exposes fossil-rich Carboniferous limestone and shale beneath a prominent sandstone outcrop. Crinoid stems, corals and shells can be seen on weathered foreshore surfaces, while the local limestone has also yielded scientifically important crinoids and microscopic fossils. These rocks belong to the Lower Limestone Formation, with the principal fossil-bearing limestone dated to the late Brigantian, near the end of the Viséan.
FIND FREQUENCY: ♦♦♦♦♦ – Crinoid debris, coral sections and shells are conspicuous in suitable weathered limestone surfaces.
CHILDREN: ♦♦♦ – Best suited to older children under close supervision; the approach to the rocky shore can be awkward.
ACCESS: ♦♦♦ – Walk south from Seafield Beach car park along the coastal path. The path and the uneven foreshore are different terrain.
TYPE: Carboniferous limestone, shale and sandstone exposed in a small tidal bay.
DIRECTIONS
♦ At the south end of Kirkcaldy, leave the A921 for Seafield Road and use Seafield Beach car park. The beach car park is the practical starting point, rather than roadside parking beside the tower.
♦ Follow the Fife Coastal Path south to Seafield Tower. This guide concerns the small bay immediately south of the ruin; the old-kilns limestone exposure described in the geology section lies farther south.
♦ Check Fife Coast and Countryside Trust’s route notices and follow local signs or diversions. Inspect the shore approach before descending and remain on the path if there is no safe way down.
♦ Plan the foreshore visit around low tide, with time to return before the water rises.
♦ Original bay reference: 56.083666°N, 3.1594893°W; grid reference NT 27940 88479. This marks the shore locality, not the car park.
FOSSIL HUNTING
Begin with the wave-washed rock surfaces in the small bay south of the tower. Pale circular sections, short jointed stems and shell outlines often stand out against the darker rock. Compare several surfaces rather than expecting every limestone band to look the same: some are densely packed with skeletal fragments, whereas others are muddier or more strongly recrystallised. A hand lens and close photographs are particularly useful here. This is a place to observe fossils in their setting; the collecting restrictions are explained under ACCESS RIGHTS.
Crinoids are the most immediately recognisable fossils. Their stems were built from stacked plates, known as columnals, which commonly separated after death. On the foreshore, look for disc-shaped cross-sections with a central opening and for short rows of joined segments. A dense patch of these fragments is crinoidal limestone, not necessarily a complete animal. The crinoid-rich Mill Hill Marine Band is identified beneath the sandstone cliff at the tower; the separately described Seafield Tower Limestone and its overlying calcareous shales are also important parts of the local fossil record. Loose stones cannot usually be assigned to one of these beds from their position on the beach alone.
Corals occur as solitary rugose forms and colonial material. A cut or naturally weathered coral may show radiating internal partitions, while a colony can expose many neighbouring tubes. The documented colonial genus Siphonodendron belongs to the local limestone-and-shale assemblage, but a weathered section is not automatically identifiable to species. Crinoid stems can also appear as repeated circles, so compare the internal structure as well as the overall shape. The original photographs are useful examples of how different fossil-rich rocks appear at hand-specimen scale.
Brachiopods include productoid and large gigantoproductid forms, together with records of Schizophoria, Cleiothyridina and spiriferoids. Look for ribbed shell surfaces, curved valves and shell sections exposed across bedding. The fossiliferous material is not confined to the thick main limestone: calcareous shale and thinner crinoidal limestone bands preserve a varied marine assemblage too. Weathered surfaces can reveal details without breaking the rock; a shell’s exposed outline alone may give less taxonomic information than its full shape and ornament.
The scientific record also includes the gastropods Pseudozygopleura and Straparollus, nautiloids and the echinoid Archaeocidaris. These records widen the picture of the ancient marine community, but do not establish that complete examples are frequent finds. Bryozoans have also been reported locally, although their genus has not been confirmed. Record what a specimen actually shows rather than applying a name from another part of the Kinghorn coast.
Seafield’s crinoids have a substantial research history. Published records include Parazeacrinites, Phanocrinus, Ureocrinus, Onychocrinus and Platycrinites, while Scytalocrinus seafieldensis was named from the Seafield Tower Limestone. Such identifications depend on diagnostic structures, especially the cup and associated parts, rather than the common isolated stem discs. The named museum material should therefore not be used to label every crinoid photograph or to suggest that complete crowns are routinely visible on a visit.
The pictured tooth has historically been identified as Ctenopetalus serratus, but its species and precise collecting bed remain unconfirmed. For an unusual fossil, photograph it with a scale and record its exact position, rock type and whether it is in bedrock or a loose stone. Seek specialist advice before any disturbance or preparation; a recorded association can matter as much as the specimen itself.
Significant discoveries and geological studies at Seafield Tower, from early surveyed sections to modern microfossil research.
1900 – A fossiliferous section below the tower described
Archibald Geikie documented alternating limestone and shale west of Seafield Tower beneath its thick pink sandstone. His account distinguished a principal limestone, several higher fossiliferous bands and a final shale interval below the sandstone, establishing a detailed early description of the local succession. Its historical limestone correlation has since been reconsidered.
1926–1927 – Seafield crinoids used to study variation
James Wright used Seafield crinoid material in pioneering studies of variation in the plates forming the crinoid cup. This work helped show why the arrangement and variability of individual skeletal plates are important in distinguishing these animals, beyond the common stem fragments visible in the rocks.
1948 – Scytalocrinus seafieldensis formally described
James Wright named Scytalocrinus seafieldensis from the Seafield Tower Limestone. Its holotype is held by National Museums Scotland. The same report described an unusually preserved Ureocrinus bockschii with part of the stem and three arms still attached to the cup, demonstrating the scientific value of Seafield’s more complete crinoid material.
1949–1956 – Limestone measurement and microscopic character documented
Geological Survey work recorded the principal limestone and its dolomitised basal part on the shore south of the tower. The later petrographic account described a local dolomite sample in which microscopic crinoid structure survived despite substantial mineral replacement. These observations explain why preservation varies between otherwise fossil-rich parts of the section.
1993 – The limestone examined through its microfossils
Ali Mohamed Karbub investigated the Seafield Tower Limestone as part of an MPhil study of Lower Carboniferous rocks in central Scotland. Thin sections revealed its original skeletal limestone textures and surviving foraminifera and algae, despite strong recrystallisation. The local account distinguished the principal limestone, fossiliferous shale and an upper crinoidal limestone.
2020 – Microfossils refine the limestone’s age
Pedro Cózar and Ian D. Somerville documented a relatively rich foraminiferal assemblage from the Seafield Tower Limestone. It supports a late Brigantian age, within the late Viséan, while leaving finer correlations with particular limestones elsewhere in Scotland and northern England open to further work.
GEOLOGY
The limestone, shale and sandstone around the south side of Seafield Tower belong to the Lower Limestone Formation of the Clackmannan Group. The principal Seafield Tower Limestone is late Brigantian in age, within the late Viséan of the Mississippian, or Lower Carboniferous. This local age is established from its fossil assemblage; the wider age range of the formation cannot be applied indiscriminately to each bed.
The fossil-bearing limestones and calcareous shales record marine conditions. Crinoids, corals and brachiopods lived in the sea, and their remains accumulated with carbonate sediment and mud. Changes in the amount of mud reaching the sea floor produced the contrast between stronger limestone beds and softer shaly intervals. These are parts of a cyclic succession in a basin that also received large amounts of river- and delta-derived sediment. The marine fossils do not mean that every bed formed in the same environment, and the presence of corals alone does not establish a reef.
Two local limestone names need to be kept distinct. The main Seafield Tower Limestone forms the pale outcrop east of the old lime kilns, roughly 250–260 m south of the tower, and is followed by fossiliferous calcareous shales and crinoidal limestone bands. The Mill Hill Marine Band is a higher crinoid-rich marker recognised beneath the tower sandstone. The old-kilns section provides adjacent geological context for the small bay; it is not proof that every photographed specimen or loose stone came from the principal limestone.
The ruined tower stands on a thick, locally reddish sandstone. Its sloping and curved internal layers are cross-bedding, produced as sand bars migrated through river channels. This substantial sand deposit follows the marine limestone-and-shale episode. Bedding also dips generally eastwards towards the sea, so the winding shoreline is not a simple north-to-south ladder through successively younger rocks. Comparing the sandstone landmark with the limestone and shale exposures gives a more useful guide to the relationships.
Detailed geology and stratigraphy of the south-tower bay and the adjacent old-kilns exposure.
The succession below is described from older to younger rocks. Measurements refer to particular published sections, especially the old-kilns exposure south of the tower, rather than a single continuously measured log through the small bay. Named local limestones and the sandstone are horizons within the formation.
CLACKMANNAN GROUP
The Clackmannan Group is the formal parent of the local Lower Limestone Formation. Regionally, it contains repeated marine carbonate intervals and clastic deposits associated with shifting coastal and deltaic environments. Only a small part of this much larger succession is represented in the south-tower account.
Lower Limestone Formation
Older publications use the name Lower Limestone Group for these rocks. The modern formation belongs within the Clackmannan Group; the old and new names are not two separate layers. The principal limestone’s late Brigantian age is more specific than the formation-wide Brigantian–Pendleian range.
Shelly grey shale beneath the main limestone: southern context
In the approach to the old-kilns section, MacGregor records approximately 3 m of grey shale becoming increasingly shelly upwards and passing into the Seafield Tower Limestone. This is the useful immediate basal context. The much larger sandstone-and-sandy-shale succession extending south towards the Second Abden Limestone belongs to the broader coastal section and is not presented as a complete exposure in the small tower bay.
Seafield Tower Limestone: main limestone at the old kilns
The principal outcrop is the pale-grey limestone east of the old lime kilns, approximately 250–260 m south of Seafield Tower. MacGregor and the Geological Conservation Review give a thickness of 3.5 m, with three principal limestone beds. Published accounts do not provide separate thicknesses for the three beds. Other accounts report about 3.2 m, from the Geological Survey’s 10½ ft measurement in 1949, and 3 m in Karbub’s 1993 section. These are separately recorded measurements, not three successive units or a precisely surveyed range across the whole bay.
The limestone weathers pale grey to yellowish and contains visible coral, crinoid and brachiopod material. Karbub’s microscopic study describes its original texture as bioclastic wackestone to packstone: skeletal debris in a rock that originally retained varying amounts of carbonate mud between its grains. Much of it has recrystallised, obscuring some fossil outlines, although foraminifera and algae can survive in thin section. The altered fabric helps explain why abundant fossil material is not always sharply preserved.
Dolomitised basal portion of the main limestone
The 1949 account identifies the lowest 3½ ft of its 10½ ft principal limestone as dolomitic. A sample from the shore south of the tower, SL280/S35803, was described in the 1956 petrographic volume as brown, compact dolomite with variable crystal size and crinoid remains. Some microscopic crinoid structure survived mineral replacement even where the original external shape was obscured. This is a documented basal part of the main limestone, not an extra bed beneath it or a uniformly traceable 1.07 m layer across the bay.
Overlying calcareous shale, nodules and crinoidal limestone bands
MacGregor and the Geological Conservation Review describe 14 m of calcareous grey shale above the main limestone, containing carbonate nodules and crinoidal limestone bands up to 1 m thick. The older Survey section gives 45 ft of shale with lenticular limestone. Fossils occur through these shaly and thinner limestone beds as well as in the principal limestone: the documented assemblage includes rugose corals, brachiopods, gastropods, nautiloids, echinoids and several crinoid genera. MacGregor groups the main limestone and these calcareous strata under one map label; this does not make the combined interval a solid 17.5 m limestone bed.
The shorter 1993 measured account
Karbub describes 1.2 m of dark-grey fossiliferous shale, becoming silty upwards, above a 3 m principal limestone, followed by approximately 1 m of crinoidal limestone. The latter is described microscopically as grainstone, a grain-supported carbonate with little original mud between the skeletal grains. The relationship between this shorter section and the 14 m shale package remains unclear, so their measurements should not be combined. It does not establish a thickness for the Mill Hill Marine Band.
Mill Hill Marine Band: marker below the tower sandstone
The geological trail identifies a crinoid-ossicle-rich limestone beneath the cliff at Seafield Tower as the Mill Hill Marine Band. The Kirkcaldy sheet explanation likewise places the cross-bedded tower sandstone above this marine band and distinguishes it from the lower principal limestone in its regional correlation diagram. Its separate thickness and exact numerical relationship to the older, collectively described shale-and-crinoidal-limestone interval are unresolved. It should not be added as an independently measured extra metre, nor confused with the Seafield Marine Band higher in the northern coastal succession.
Historical observations of the terminal limestone and shale
Geikie’s 1900 account of the beach west of the tower describes about 50 ft of alternating limestone and shale. It includes 2–3 ft of basal calcareous shale passing down into black carbonaceous shale, a principal limestone about 10 ft thick in bands with shaly partings, and higher alternations ending in an approximately 3 ft fossiliferous limestone. Above that final limestone he records 3–4 ft of shale beneath the pink sandstone. This differently scoped historical section is retained for its useful bed relationships, not added to the later measurements. Its unnamed upper limestone cannot be securely equated with Mill Hill, and a sharp direct limestone–sandstone contact is not assumed. Geikie’s old “Hurlet” correlation is historical terminology rather than a modern local bed assignment.
Seafield Tower Sandstone
The tower stands on this substantial sandstone, measured as 15 m by MacGregor and 16 m in the Geological Conservation Review. It is locally reddish and displays prominent cross-bedding, including trough-shaped sets. The trail interprets these structures as sand bars migrating in shifting river channels, with sediment supplied from farther north. The sandstone is a local named body within the Lower Limestone Formation, not a separate formation or evidence of Devonian rocks. Its position above the marine interval records renewed substantial sand input.
Age, microfossils and regional correlation
Cózar and Somerville’s 2020 study places the Seafield Tower Limestone in foraminiferal Assemblage 7, supporting a late Brigantian age. It records Biseriella parva, Endothyranopsis sphaerica and Climacammina species; the figured Seafield sample also contains Howchinia variabilis. These are microscopic thin-section records, not species to identify unaided on the beach. Correlation with the Charlestown Main Limestone is considered likely, but the precise relationship to the Blackhall and Five Yard limestones remains uncertain. The atypical or apparently absent Neilson Shell Bed has contributed to that difficulty; it is not introduced here as a separately established local bed.
Structure and limits of the local section
Published mapping shows generally eastward, seaward dips, with values around 20–25° near the relevant exposures. The oblique shoreline and changing outcrop positions make a universal “oldest north, youngest south” rule unreliable. Above the tower sandstone, the Seafield Marine Band and the Lower, Middle and Upper Kinniny limestones belong to the broader seaward and northern shore. They are outside this small-bay succession, as are the Abden Bone Bed and volcanic exposures farther south.
References
British Geological Survey, Lower Limestone Formation (LLGS) and Clackmannan Group (CKN), Lexicon of Named Rock Units.
MacGregor, A.R. (1996). Fife and Angus geology: an excursion guide, 3rd edition, excursion 18, especially localities 4–6 and Map 23.
Cossey, P.J. et al. (2004). British Lower Carboniferous Stratigraphy, Geological Conservation Review 29, Kinghorn Coast, pp.41–44.
Browne, M.A.E. and Woodhall, D.G. (1999; displayed ©2003 edition). Geology of the Kirkcaldy district, Sheet 40E explanation, Figure 5 and Plate 2.
Browne, M.A.E., Garton, R.E. and Bachelor, R.A. (2012). Kinghorn–Kirkcaldy Geological Trail, locality 8.
Karbub, A.M. (1993). Foraminiferal Biostratigraphy and Microfacies of the Lower Carboniferous rocks, Central Scotland, University of Edinburgh MPhil thesis, section 2.3.3.
Robertson, T., Simpson, J.B. and Anderson, J.G.C. (1949). The Limestones of Scotland, p.106; Muir, A. and Hardie, H.G.M., with Phemister, J. et al. (1956), The limestones of Scotland: chemical analyses and petrography, volume 2, sample SL280/S35803.
Geikie, A. (1900). The Geology of Central and Western Fife and Kinross, p.91.
Cózar, P. and Somerville, I.D. (2020). Foraminiferal biostratigraphy of Brigantian–Arnsbergian limestones from eastern Scotland and Northumberland (northeast England), Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 111, 193–207, section 3.2.3 and Figures 5–6.
SAFETY
Visit on a falling tide and leave enough time to return before the sea rises against the rocky margins. Do not rely on the coastal path being close by as proof that every part of the shore has an easy exit. Wet limestone, seaweed and large loose rocks can be very slippery; avoid the foreshore in rough weather or where the descent looks unsafe.
Wear footwear with good grip, supervise children closely and do not climb on the ruined tower or approach unstable masonry. Check the weather, tide times and current route notices before setting out. The condition of the exact shore descent can change after storms.
EQUIPMENT
Take sturdy footwear, a hand lens, a camera or phone, a small photographic scale and a notebook for recording fossil positions and rock types. Keep tide information available offline. Hammers, chisels and excavation tools are inappropriate for an ordinary observational visit to this protected shore.
CLEANING AND TREATING
The naturally weathered foreshore surfaces are often the best way to examine these fossils. Leave them in place. For an existing, lawfully held specimen, begin with a soft dry brush and work under magnification; do not force hard limestone away from a fossil when both are breaking together. Shaly material may crumble or split when soaked, so avoid routine washing.
Household acids and vinegar can attack carbonate fossils as well as their matrix. Avoid bleach, varnish and aggressive chemical treatment. Leave a potentially important crinoid cup, tooth or other unusual specimen unprepared until a specialist has assessed it, keeping its original locality information with it.
IDENTIFY YOUR FINDS
Need help identifying a fossil? Share clear photos, where you found it and its size with the community.
FURTHER READING
Kinghorn–Kirkcaldy Geological Trail: Seafield Tower at locality 8
MacGregor’s geological excursion: old-kilns limestone and tower sandstone
Geological Conservation Review: Kinghorn Coast, including the Seafield section
Wright’s 1948 description of Scytalocrinus seafieldensis
Museum catalogue record of the Scytalocrinus seafieldensis holotype
The 2020 microfossil study and its Seafield Tower age assessment
ACCESS RIGHTS
The foreshore south of Seafield Tower is within the Firth of Forth Site of Special Scientific Interest. Its operations requiring consent expressly include removal of geological specimens, including rocks, minerals and fossils. The list contains no exemption for loose fossils. Visit to observe and photograph; do not hammer, excavate or remove specimens unless the relevant landowner’s permission, any necessary mineral-rights permission and any required NatureScot consent have been confirmed.
Walking access does not itself authorise collecting. Private visitors arrange a required SSSI consent through the relevant landowner or occupier; do not assume that a standing consent covers your visit. The Kinghorn–Kirkcaldy Geological Trail also asks visitors not to hammer or remove rocks. These are site-specific requirements, not a statement that every Scottish fossil locality has the same restrictions.
Seafield Tower and its associated archaeological ground form a scheduled monument. Do not climb, disturb masonry or dig around the ruin. Follow local signs and respect the landowner’s requirements along the approach and shore.
Scotland’s fossil resource is at risk of abuse and damage, and so we must all safeguard and managed fossil collecting to ensure its survival for future generations. For this reason it is VITAL you read and adhere to the Scottish Fossil Code for ALL sites in Scotland.
It is important to follow our ‘Code of Conduct’ when collecting fossils or visiting any site. Please also read our ‘Terms and Conditions‘
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