Thomas Heising

Visual science communication
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Not another brick in the wall

Cork sightseeing
2025 | Cork, Ireland
Devonian plant fossils at Rutland Street in CorkDevonian plant fossils at Rutland Street in Cork

I’m not religious. But for every passing by this brick on Rutland Street in Cork city, plans about creating a little altar for its beautiful assemblage of Devonian fossils appear in my head. My hunt for Devonian plant fossils in the city’s walls and monuments has lasted since my work on Hardcore Cork.

I finally spotted this outstanding Old Red Sandstone-brick; likely extracted from one of the local quarries in the city, and I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful brick!

This looks like, and I really want it to be, the fossilised trunk from a horsetail plant.

These pictures were taken for the Hardcore Cork-website, but I simply needed them to be here as well. Some of the fossilised branches have great three-dimensional relief and structural detail.

Of course, one has to be careful identifying rocks that are not found in-situ (meaning in place in the original rock formation) and also: I’m not a palaeobotanist! 

But the Devonian-layers of the city are of the latest Devonian age with these type of plants (likely the then common Archaeopteris) being widespread in certain parts. Fossils of these plants have been found around the city when less infrastructure covered up the place. You can explore a 3D-model of such a fossil on Hardcore Cork’s website.

Tip: If you’re not socially comfortable pressing your eyeballs up against a “random” brick in the middle of a busy street, I recommend bringing a friend. It makes it less “weird”.

Update: I have since asked two geologists at UCC who confirmed that these are indeed c. 360 million-year-old Devonian plant fossils!

Devonian plant fossils at Rutland Street in Cork