The BGS Lexicon of Named Rock Units — Result Details

Kinnesswood Formation

Computer Code: KNW Preferred Map Code: KNW
Status Code: Full
Age range: Frasnian Age (DR) — Famennian Age (DA)
Lithological Description: Characteristically metre thick sandstone beds with carbonate (limestone or dolomite) nodular pedogenic horizons (cornstone). Thin conglomerate beds at the base of sandstone beds also occur, as well as occasional mudstone and calcareous mudstone beds.
Definition of Lower Boundary: The transitional base is taken between strata with cornstones and the underlying aeolian sandstones without cornstones of the Knox Pulpit Formation (Stratheden Group).
Definition of Upper Boundary: The top is generally a conformable boundary beneath the Ballagan Formation, but in the type area is erosional beneath strata of the Pathhead Formation of the Strathclyde Group.
Thickness: To c. 400 m.
Geographical Limits: Midland Valley, Scotland.
Parent Unit: Inverclyde Group (INV)
Previous Name(s): Cornstone Beds [Obsolete Name and Code: Use KNW] (-1632)
Cornstone Formation [Obsolete Name and Code: Use KNW] (-4134)
Cornstone Beds (Of Stirling Area) [Obsolete Name: See KNW] (CRNS)
Garrique Cornstone Formation [Obsolete Name And Code: See KNW] (GCF)
Powmill Formation [Obsolete Name and Code: Use KNW] (-1004)
Alternative Name(s): none recorded or not applicable
Stratotypes:
Partial Type Section  Kinnesswood Row. 
Type Area  Kinnesswood, near Loch Leven, Tayside, Scotland. 
Reference Section  BGS Glenrothes Borehole (1985-6), Reg. No. NO20SE/385, 362.43-449.32 m. 
Reference(s):
Browne, M A E, Dean, M T, Hall, I H S, McAdam, A D and Monro, S K, 1995. A review of the lithostratigraphy of the Carboniferous rocks of the Midland Valley of Scotland. BGS Technical Report, WA/95/25R. 
Marshall, J, Reeves, E J, Bennett, C, Davies, S, Kearsey, T, Millward, D, Smithson, T, and Browne, M. 2019. Reinterpreting the age of the uppermost 'Old Red Sandstone' and Early Carboniferous in Scotland. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1-14. doi:10.1017/S1755691018000968 
Cameron, I B and Stephenson, D, 1985. British Regional Geology: The Midland Valley of Scotland (3rd Edition). (London: HMSO for British Geological Survey). 
Dean, M T, Browne, M A E, Waters, C N and Powell, J H. 2011. A lithostratigraphical framework for the Carboniferous successions of northern Great Britain (onshore). British Geological Survey Research Report, RR/10/007. 165pp. 
Paterson, I B and Hall, I H S. 1986. Lithostratigraphy of the late Devonian and early Carboniferous rocks in the Midland Valley of Scotland. British Geological Survey Report, 18/3. 
Chisholm, J I and Dean, J M, 1974. The Upper Old Red Sandstone of Fife and Kinross: A fluviatile sequence with evidence of marine incursion. Scottish Journal of Geology, Vol. 10, 1-30. 
1:50K maps on which the lithostratigraphical unit is found, and map code used:
S012 S015 S023 S013 S025 S031 S025 S017 S006 S011 S338 S014 S017 S018 S023 S024 S026 S033 S032 S032 S038 S033 S034 S048 S048 S049 E006 S030 S030 S038 S039 S039 S040