Mr Wood’s Fossils celebrates 25th birthday with busiest year to date
Iconic Edinburgh shop Mr Wood’s Fossils is celebrating 25 years in business having just achieved a 16% increase in turnover from shop-based and online sales. Geologist and owner Matt Dale credits the lasting legacy of original owner and ‘celebrity’ palaeontologist Stan Wood, an ever-changing selection of stock as well as repeat customers with the business’ success. As a thank you, customers will receive a free shark tooth with every purchase throughout the month of June.
Matt said: “Everything we sell is unique and no two pieces are ever identical which makes us the perfect place for one-of-a-kind gifts. Fossils may be old, but they’re certainly not boring and each of them has a story to tell.”
Take, for example, a find the real Mr Wood made in the Scottish Borders only a few years ago. Where others had given up on the area, Stan Wood found plant, fish and amphibian fossils which helped scientists close a gap in the fossil record of 360 to 345 million years ago.
Matt Dale explained: “Stan Wood quite simply had an eye for fossils and opening the shop gave him an opportunity to share his passion with the public. He spent 20 years searching this particular area of the Borders, but that’s really nothing compared to the achievement of proving what life existed on our doorstep for a 15 million year period.”
Best known for his discovery of ‘Lizzie’ (Westlothiana lizziae), a reptile-like amphibian, Stan Wood left a career in insurance sales to become a professional fossil hunter.
Today, Scotland’s only fossil shop attracts locals and visitors to the city as well as online shoppers from as far afield as Australia and Mexico.
Matt Dale’s favourites are possibly some of the ‘smallest spenders’: “Standing behind the counter, it’s fantastic to watch kids looking at dinosaur teeth and getting really excited about something that’s been part of a real-life monster.” Asked about future plans, he says: “Mr Wood’s Fossils will certainly stay in the Grassmarket – it’s the perfect location for us, but we’ll continue to grow online sales and I have been looking at expanding into other cities.”
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