In 1982, Julian Andrews, a 22-year-old first-year PhD student at the University of Leicester, was on a field trip to Skye's rugged north coast.
The young scientist wasn't looking for dinosaurs.
He sought to better understand the environmental conditions under which the island's ancient Middle Jurassic sedimentary rocks formed.
“It was towards the end of the morning, and as I do when I'm in the field, I left where I was working to look at the full context,” says Andrews, now professor emeritus at the University of East Anglia. .
“I put my hand on a block of limestone to steady myself.
“I looked under my hand and thought, ‘Oh, that’s funny. There’s a bump there.’”
When he saw the shape of three toes, he realized he had found dinosaur footprints.
At the beginning of the trip, the scientist's supervisor, John Hudson, said that no dinosaur fossils had been found on Skye. Even though the rock is the right type for such a discovery.
Professor Andrews said: “I went back to him and said, ‘Did you tell me no one has ever found dinosaur remains on Skye?’
“‘Well, I think so now’.”