IT IS one of those strange Glasgow facts, which sounds almost too bizarre to believe.

There are fossils in the city which are older than the dinosaurs?

Weird, but totally true.

Glasgow Times: Fossil Grove in 1954. Pic: Newsquest

Fossil Grove in Victoria Park is home to eleven fossilised tree stumps complete with partial trunks and roots which grew more than 330 million years ago (almost 100 million years before the dinosaurs, who lived from around 230m to 66m years ago) and have been preserved in their original position.

Discovered in 1887 by workmen cutting a path through the bottom of an old quarry, they were left in situ under a specially designed Fossil House, which became one of the most popular tourist attractions in Edwardian Glasgow.

Glasgow Times: Children watching an ice skater on the frozen pond at Victoria Park, December 1925 Pic: Glasgow City Archives

Victoria Park, named in honour of Queen Victoria, is a beautiful spot in the city, home not just to incredible history, but also to beautiful walks, a boating pond – often used for skating when it iced over -

It was formally opened by Sir Andrew MacLean (then Provost of Partick) in the summer of the monarch’s Golden Jubilee year of 1887.

Glasgow Times: The Victoria Park gates 1978. Pic: Newsquest

Its magnificent Jubilee Gates situated at the Victoria Park North Drive entrance were funded by the ‘Ladies of Partick’ in 1887. They were manufactured by Macfarlane’s Saracen Foundry at a cost of £100.

Victoria Park is also home to the ‘most northerly flock of parrots’ in the world, just to add to its list of quirky attractions. About 20 or 30 of the colourful parakeets made their home in the park a couple of summers ago - Scottish Natural Heritage believed they were probably escaped pets.