User:Psuedomorph/MacCulloch's Tree

MacCulloch's Tree (sometimes referred to as MacCulloch's Fossil Tree) is a petrified wood locality on the Ardmeanach Peninsula, Mull, Scotland. A coniferous tree trunk, 12 metres high and 1.5 metres in diameter, has been preserved in it's position of growth, despite having been totally engulfed by a lava flow that erupted as part of the volcanic activity related to the Tertiary age North Atlantic Igneous Province. MacCulloch's tree (and others in the area revealed by cooling-crack patterns in lava flows) have been assigned to the genus Cupressinoxylon.

Geologist John MacCulloch (1773 – 1835) began a tour of Scotland to investigate its geological history, culminating in the multiple volume A Description of the Western Isles of Scotland, published in 1819. As part of MacColloch's tour he visited the Isle of Mull. where he identified the coniferous tree, now known as MacCulloch’s Tree.

Much of the original material has been collected visitors over the years since it's description, with the last remains protected by a concrete capstone. The site falls within a SSSI, Special Area of Conservation and is part of the National Trust for Scotland's Burg property.