Auchinleck Tip fossils and fossil collecting |
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 From Auchinleck, head southwards towards Cumnock. At the crossroads, take the road to the East “Coal Road”
Follow this road, until you cross the Auchinleck Burn. The road will then start to veer North East, instead take the small road Eastwards. From here, just before a sharp corner with a house on the right hand side, you will see the tip area on the left, and plenty of space to park.
You will need an OS 1:50,000 or OS 1:25,000 scale map to help you find this location. On OS 1:50,000 scale, it is the bend that crosses the disused railway, south of Commondyke farm and East of Birnieknowe.
GRID REF: 55.47356°N, 4.25309°W |
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This spoil heap is part still working and part disused. Most of the waste material contains limestone and shale that is poor in fossil remains, however if you can find the right beds then plant remains can be found. The plant remains do seem poorly preserved, but as with all tips, you never know what you might find!
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Medium Low
You can spend a great deal of time searching and splitting the shale, finding little but remains of calamites. These seem to be the most common find here. Other plant remains do exist, but are much harder to find. Because of this and because they seem poorly preserved, this rating is set as medium low.
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Not for children
This tip is part working, so children should not visit the site as lorries can occasionally use the tip. The level of activity is low, but children should still not visit. |
Very Good Access
Very easy, park off road in the lay-by beside the tip and walk in. It is right next to the road where you can start searching for fossils. |
Spoil Heap
This is a spoil heap, it is the waste material from the local open cast mines which includes limestone and shale. The fossils are found in the shale layers which is soft and easy to split. As this is waste material that the coal mines don’t require, specific zones cannot be identified. |
Possible Restrictions
This is a new tipping site, at the time of writing the spoil heap has easy access without any gates or fences or warning signs, it is a large area with piles of spoil waste. The level of activity is extremely low with Lorries turning up about once a day. This may change in the future. Therefore we cannot guarantee that this is publically accessible or, that this information hasn’t changed. |
If you collect fossils in Scotland, the advice on best practice in the collection and storage of fossil specimens, set out in the Scottish Fossil Code, applies to you. The Code may be viewed and downloaded from www.snh.org.uk/fossilcode.
 
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Although this tip is spread out and fairly flat, rather than the often dangerously pile high spoil heaps, this site is still partly being used. The level of activity is very low, but this may change from the time writing this site. It appears as if this is a fairly new spoil heap, so may become dangerous as the heap grows. You should keep well away from any vehicles entering the site. |
| Last updated: |
2010 |
| last visited: |
2008 |
| Written by: |
Alister and Alison Cruickshanks |
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From the entrance, you will see lots of piles of limestone and shale of various heights spread around on a large open area. You will need to search around to find any shale. Most of the shale contains no fossils, but you will find areas of shale where calamite zones exist, packed with fossil stems. Layers or fossil roots can also be found.
Most of the fossils are poorly preserved, although occasionally if you find shale from the better preserved layers, then plants can be fairly good. Much of the waste material is hard limestone which contains little if any fossils. The shale is fairly easy to split and often a pale yellowish colour. Most of the shale is already split by weathering and you can simply pull away the shale from the larger boulders, others you can split using a chisel ended pick.
Spoil heap from the local open coal mines.
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Carboniferous, 310mya |
The rocks at Auchinleck Tip are a mixture of Carboniferous limestone and shale. They are Westphalian B age, and cover zones of the Cumnock zones, these have become mixed up of extracting coal from local open cast mines.
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Geological Tools
A splitting pick is very handy at this location, you will need plenty of paper to wrap your finds.
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Stone Tumblers |
Microscopes |
Geological Supplies |
If you are interested in fossil collecting, then you may also be interested in a stone tumbler (Lapidary). You can polish stones and rocks from the beach which
will look fantastic polished using a stone tumbler.
You can polish rough rock and beach glass whilst collecting fossils, on those days where you come back empty handed.
These are all high quality machines to give a professional finish to your samples. They can even be used for amber and fossils.
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At Auchinleck, you can find very small fish bones using a microscope. There are plenty of finds to be made without the need of a microscope, but a microcope will enable you to see the smallest fossils. It will also show detail on the fossil fish remains.
We have a wide range of microscopes for sale, you will need a Stereomicroscope for viewing microfossils. The best one we sell is the IMXZ, but a basic microscope will be fine. Once you have found microfossils, you will need to store these microfossils.
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UKGE, the owners of UK Fossils, are your market leader for Geological Supplies and Geology Equipment. Suppling Retail, Education and Trade in the UK, Europe and beyond.
We sell a wide range of geological hammer and geological picks as well as fossil tools, starter packs and geological chisels.
UKGE is your geological superstore, selling a wide range of field equipment, rocks, minerals, fossils, geological and even microscopy! |
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