Mammoth bone discovery is a first for Scotland

THE first woolly mammoth bone found in Scotland has been discovered on a beach.

Nicholas Coombey found the leg bone of the extinct beast which had washed up on a beach at Loch Ryan, near Stranraer, Dumfries and Galloway.

The 56-year-old said National Museum of Scotland experts have confirmed it is from a woolly mammoth and they are trying to establish its age.

There have been only ever been 16 sites in Scotland where the remains, usually teeth or tusks, of woolly mammoths have been found. In 1840 there was a reported sighting of a mammoth bone at Chapelhall, North Lanarkshire, but experts have been unable to verify it.

Experts at the National Museum of Scotland compared the femur mammoth bone to elephants and rhinos to confirm it was a match.

Mr Coombey, who works for the Solway Firth Partnership, came across the 2ft-long thigh bone last month.

He said: “My job involves visiting beaches and I’m always being asked what the most interesting thing I’ve found has been. I stumbled upon it one day and knew immediately it must have been special as I’d never seen a bone so large before.

“I had a look on the internet and it seemed extraordinary. I took it to a museum in Dumfries and Galloway who sent it to the National Museum of Scotland.

“They checked the bone against what they already had for woolly mammoths and a month later confirmed what it was.

“It never really occurred to me that I could find one just walking by walking around the beach”.

Woolly mammoths lived about 4,000 years ago and died out as the planet warmed after the ice age. They could reach 13ft tall with 4ft long hair.

„ Nicholas Coombey shows off the mammoth leg bone found on a beach. „ Woolly mammoths, which were closely related to modernday elephants, lived in Scotland about 4,000 years ago, but died out as the Earth warmed.„ The bone was washed up at Loch Ryan, near Stranraer.