Fossilised sea Lilly

Northern Ireland Sea Lillys ( or the very unromantic name of crinoids!)

In Fermanagh the oldest rocks are found in the north of the county. These sedimentary rocks formed in an ocean over 550 million years ago and were metamorphosed during the Caledonian mountain building event. The next oldest rocks in Fermanagh are the Devonian sandstones that are on the East of Lough Erne, formed by rivers in a desert-like landscape between 410 and 354 million years ago. After this, the sea levels began to rise, beach sands were lain down and, as the seas got a little deeper, limestones were formed. At this time Ireland was close to the equator and reefs formed, which contained lots of animals such as corals, brackiopods (lamp shells because they are the shape of Roman lamps), and crinoids which are sea lilies. Over 80 brachiopod and 65 bryozoan (sea mat) species have been identified at one location. These fossils can all be seen in the Carboniferous limestones across Ireland and they also help us identify the age of the rock as different types of fossils lived at different times in Earth history.

Alan Gibbons the artist was born in Lisnaskea, in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland and started making pendants whilst travelling around southern Europe as something to keep him occupied on rest days. His first one was made for his wife, Mandy, from a piece of weathered bone found on a beach in northern Spain. When they eventually arrived in Tenerife, work took over but once they were settled, he took it up again as a hobby; picking up stones from the beach and rough precious rocks bought at car boot sales. After a while, friends and family started bringing him stones they had found on their travels from all over the world. 5 years ago, Alan and Mandy moved back to his birth place, into a dilapidated stone cottage; spending two years doing it up, and now spends his free time either in the garden or handshaping and polishing his pendants, using diamond needle files for shaping and gradually finer grades of wet and dry polishing paper to, well, polish them! Each piece dictates what shape it will be as he works with it, making every one unique.