Howardites
Meteorites of Britain and Ireland · Scotland

The Glenrothes meteorite

Scotland's first meteorite find: a few weathered fragments, forgotten for months in a fishing jacket.

Key facts

Found
1998
Where
near Glenrothes, Fife
Type
H5 ordinary chondrite
Mass
about 13 g
Where it is kept
Private and research collections
Nation today
Scotland

In July 1998 the meteorite hunter Rob Elliott picked up some small weathered fragments near Glenrothes in Fife. He forgot about them until early 1999, when he found them again in the pocket of a fishing jacket. Tests showed they were meteorite, and the find was named Glenrothes.

The fragments, about 13 grams in total, are probably pieces of a single stone that weathered and broke apart where it lay; Elliott found them close together and no others further away. Glenrothes is an H5 ordinary chondrite.

It was the first meteorite ever found in Scotland, as opposed to being seen to fall, and one of only four finds in the whole of the UK. Meteorites do not last long in British soil: rain and oxygen rust their metal and split the stone, which is why nearly every British meteorite was picked up soon after it fell.

Did you know?

Did you know?

Glenrothes was the first meteorite found, rather than seen to fall, in Scotland.

Did you know?

The same hunter also found Britain's only pallasite, Hambleton, seven years later.

Find out more

Nearest other British and Irish meteorites