Permian footprints, Chelichnus duncani

This sandstone slab shows footprints that were made over 225 million years ago. At this time this was an area of desert with shallow salt lakes and an erratic rainfall. These footprints were made by primitive reptiles that could either survive this environment, or were passing through on their way to more fertile feeding grounds.   In the late 1820s the Rev Henry Duncan of Ruthwell, the founder of the Savings Bank Movement became interested in the fossil footprints that were being found on slabs of sandstone from local quarries. He was one of the first people to study fossil footprints, some of the specimens in Dumfries Museum are from his collection.   Dumfries Museum has a large collection of fossil footprints which have been discovered over the last 150 years in sandstone quarries at Corncockle near Lochmaben, and Locharbriggs, Dumfries.