Howardites
Meteorites of Britain and Ireland · Scotland

The High Possil meteorite

Scotland's first recorded meteorite, which fell beside quarry workers on the edge of Glasgow.

Key facts

Fell
5 April 1804
Where
Possil, Glasgow
Type
L6 ordinary chondrite
Mass
about 4.5 kg
Where it is kept
Hunterian, University of Glasgow (a piece); the larger fragment was lost
Nation today
Scotland

On the morning of 5 April 1804 several loud explosions were heard over the north of Glasgow, and a stone fell at a quarry at High Possil, then countryside on the edge of the city. Workers saw it strike the ground. It weighed about 4.5 kilograms and broke into two pieces.

High Possil is the first meteorite recorded in Scotland. It fell only a year after the shower at L'Aigle in France, which finally convinced scientists that stones fall from space, so it arrived at the moment when such stones had become objects worth keeping.

It is an L6 ordinary chondrite. The L means low iron: it contains less metal than the H group. The 6 means it was heated strongly inside its parent asteroid, so its chondrules, the small round grains typical of chondrites, are blurred and hard to see.

The larger of the two pieces was later lost. A piece is held by the Hunterian at the University of Glasgow. The quarry itself has long gone; the site was later built over.

Did you know?

Did you know?

High Possil fell within the modern city of Glasgow.

Did you know?

It was the first of four meteorites recorded in Scotland.

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Nearest other British and Irish meteorites