Dura Den

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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D

ura Den, a small ravine in Kemback parish, Fife, 2½ miles E of Cupar. It is traversed by Ceres Burn on its northerly course to the Eden, and, barely 9 furlongs in length, is famous for the wealth of fossil ganoid fish enshrined in its yellow sandstone. This yellow sandstone is one of the upper beds of the Old Red, and has a thickness here of between 300 and 400 feet. The fish are found crowded together in one. thin layer, nearly a hundred finely-preserved specimens having been counted on a single slab about 5 feet square; and they consist of two species of Holoptychius (Andersoni and Flemingii), besides Dipterus, Platygnathus, Phaneropleuron Andersoni, Glyptolœmus, Glyptopomus, and Pamphractus. See Dr J. Anderson's Dura Den, a Monograph of the Yellow Sandstone and its Remarkable Remains (Edinb. 1859).—Ord. Sur., sh. 49, 1865.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer.