Up until now we have seen continuous layers of rock, tilting toward the north, but now we come to something extraordinary.

Watch Dr Mike Simms talk about these rocks

Here, the layers of rock are twisted and convulsed into amazing contortions.

These rocks are about four metres deep and were forming about 200 million years ago when something happened to shake what were then layers of mud and sand into these startling shapes.

The best explanation is that an enormously violent earthquake shook this region 200m years ago.

Similarly convulsed rocks have been found in boreholes in Magilligan, in east Yorkshire and in Dorset so the quake affected a huge area.

No ordinary earthquake could have unleashed such immense convulsions. So what could have caused an earthquake so much more powerful than those caused by ‘normal’ forces?

Dr Mike Simms, of the Ulster Museum, believes the most likely explanation is that a meteorite struck the earth about 100 to 200 kilometres west of Ireland.

There was a global extinction of many plant and animal species at this time but further investigation has to be carried out into any possible link and no impact crater of the right age has been found.