In the geologic timescale, the Rhuddanian is the first age of the Silurian Period and of the Llandovery Epoch.
The Silurian is in the Paleozoic Era of the Phanerozoic Eon.
[10] The GSSP for the Silurian is located in a section at Dob's Linn, Scotland, in an artificial excavation created just north of the Linn Branch Stream.
[9] The lower is the Hartfell Shale (48 metres (157 ft) thick), consisting chiefly of pale gray mudstone with subordinate black shales and several interbedded meta-bentonites.
[9] Above this is the 43 metres (141 ft) thick Birkhill Shale, which consist predominantly of black graptolitic shale with subordinate gray mudstones and meta-bentonites.