The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units — Result Details

Top Hosie Limestone

Computer Code: TOHO Preferred Map Code: TOHO
Status Code: Full
Age range: Brigantian Substage (CX) — Pendleian Substage (CE)
Lithological Description: A grey, fine-grained, very argillaceous, slightly crinoidal bioclastic "cementstone" type of limestone, interpreted to be of marine origin.
Definition of Lower Boundary: Generally seen as a conformable change from marine mudstone underlying the Top Hosie Limestone above a thin coal or seatearth within the Lower Limestone Formation that forms the top of the second Hosie Limestone cycle. It is not uncommon for Second and Top Hosie limestones to be separated only by marine strata, or even to become fused together.
Definition of Upper Boundary: Generally seen as a conformable change to marine mudstone that passes up into deltaic arenaceous deposits of the Limestone Coal Formation.
Thickness: Generally between 0.11m and 1.30m, or less, in the Airdrie, Falkirk and Glasgow districts. This limestone fuses with the Second Hosie Limestone in the west Glasgow district and at Wairdlaw [NS 995 731] in the Bathgate Hills.
Geographical Limits: Throughout most of the outcrop of the Carboniferous of the Midland Valley of Scotland, but locally difficult to recognize in Ayrshire and Lanarkshire where the Hosie limestones join together as the McDonald Limestone in the shelf setting, and in the on-delta setting in Fife, where it may have been removed by erosion, or simply undeveloped.
Parent Unit: Lower Limestone Formation (LLGS)
Previous Name(s): Upper Kinniny Limestone [Obsolete Name And Code: Use TOHO] (URKI)
Alternative Name(s): none recorded or not applicable
Stratotypes:
Reference Section  Wester Gartshore Colliery Underground Borehole, BGS Reg. No NS67SE/99, in two leaves at Kirkintilloch northwest of Airdrie, where it is 1.12m thick, with a unit base at 204.83m depth. 
Type Area  Houston, west of Paisley, around the Gryfe Water. 
Reference(s):
Lexique Stratigraphique International. 1971. Volume 1, Europe, Fascicule 3a, England, Wales and Scotland, Part 3a VII, Lower Carboniferous (Dinantian). 
Robertson, T, Simpson J B and Anderson J G C. 1949. The Limestones of Scotland. Special reports on the mineral resources of Great Britain. Vol.35. Memoir of the Geological Survey. 
Browne, M A E, Dean, M T, Hall, I H S, McAdam, A D Monro, S K and Chisholm, J I. 1999. A lithostratigraphical framework for the Carboniferous rocks in the Midland Valley of Scotland. British Geological Survey Research Report, RR/99/07. 
Hinxman, L W, Anderson, E M and Carruthers, R G. 1920. The economic geology of the Central Coalfield of Scotland, Area IV; Paisley, Barrhead, Renfrew. Memoir of the Geological Survey, Scotland. 
Cameron, I B, Aitken, A M, Browne, M A E and Stephenson, D. 1998. Geology of Falkirk District. Memoir of the British Geological Survey Sheet 31E (Scotland). 
Forsyth, I H, Hall, I H S and McMillan, A A. 1996. Geology of the Airdrie district. Memoir of the British Geological Survey, Sheet 31W (Scotland). 
Hall, I H S, Browne, M A E and Forsyth, I H. 1998. Geology of the Glasgow district. Memoir of the British Geological Survey, Sheet 30E (Scotland). 
1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used:
S023 S031 S031 S023 S033 S032 S032 S040 S030 S030 S039 S041