Hamstead Cliff Fossil Hunting

The Oligocene beds exposed along the coastline at Hamstead Cliff are exceptionally rich in fossils, particularly remains of mammals, crocodiles, turtles, fish and crustaceans. In addition, a wide variety of molluscs, plant material and fossil seeds can often be found scattered across the foreshore. This stretch of coast is widely regarded as one of the most productive fossil locations on the Isle of Wight, offering a remarkable diversity of finds for those willing to search carefully.

DIRECTIONS

♦ Park at the free Nunny’s Wood Car Park, accessed via Hamstead Drive. Although this is a private road, access is permitted as far as the car park. Do not attempt to park elsewhere on the road or drive beyond the car park, as this may block access and could result in enforcement action.
♦ From the car park, follow Hamstead Drive on foot all the way to the end. You will pass over a bridge crossing the creek, followed by a long walk up to the top of the road. At the top, you will reach a junction where the footpath splits—take the path heading north-west.
♦ The path will then split again, heading north-east and west. Both routes eventually lead to the coast, but we recommend taking the western path, then following the next footpath heading north. This route takes you through woodland and brings you out near the centre of the bay.
♦ From here, you can access the foreshore and walk along the beach towards Hamstead Ledge. It is possible to return via the alternative coastal path, which loops back inland and reconnects with the footpath network near Hamstead Farm.
♦ Due to the distance and tidal conditions, it is essential to allow enough time to return safely before the tide turns. The walk is approximately 3.5km to the shore, and around 7–8km in total if completing the full loop via Hamstead Ledge.
♦ Postcode to Nunny’s Wood Car Park; PO41 0YA. Google Map Link.
♦ What3Words to the shore entrance at the middle of the bay: ///proudest.liability.sharp
♦ What3Words to Hamstead Ledge (Second access point, or return path); ///outboard.padding.echo

DOWNLOAD THE UKF BOOKLET TO FOSSIL HUNTING AT BOULDNOR TO HAMSTEAD

PROFILE INFO

FIND FREQUENCY: ♦♦♦♦♦ – The beds at this location are highly fossiliferous and rich in many types of fossils. These are also of very good quality, with superb preservation. This is a fantastic location to visit and the best on the island.
CHILDREN: ♦♦ – This location would be a perfect location for families, but access is a long walk down to the shore,
ACCESS: ♦♦ – Parking is via Nunney’s Wood car park, please note the roads leading to the coastal path are private and no parking is permitted. It’s a long walk to the shore, 3.5km, and when walking along the shore will be a looped 7.5km walk.
TYPE: – All of the fossils are found on the foreshore. You just pick them up.

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FOSSIL HUNTING

The coastline around Hamstead Cliff represents one of the richest late Eocene to early Oligocene fossil localities in the UK, preserving an exceptional range of life from ancient freshwater and estuarine environments. Unlike fully marine sites, the sediments here record rivers, lagoons and coastal wetlands, offering a unique insight into ecosystems that existed around 33–37 million years ago.

Fossils are most easily collected along the foreshore, where erosion constantly releases material from the cliffs. Among the most frequently encountered finds are crocodile and turtle remains, including teeth, scutes and shell fragments. The crocodile Diplocynodon is particularly common, with its distinctive teeth often found scattered amongst shingle and clay. Turtle fossils are also regularly encountered, including soft-shelled forms such as Trionyx and hard-shelled turtles such as Emys, typically preserved as broken shell plates.

Fish remains are widespread and include small teeth, vertebrae and scales, often requiring careful searching due to their size. Occasional crustacean fragments can also be found, although these are generally less common and often incomplete.

One of the defining features of this location is the abundance of plant material and fossil seeds within the Hamstead Formation. The well-known seed Stratiotes websterii is particularly common, although usually only recovered through sieving due to its small size. Other plant remains, including fossil wood and stems, reflect the dense vegetation that once surrounded these ancient waterways.

At the base of the cliffs, the Bembridge Marls are exposed and are especially rich in molluscan fossils. Bivalves such as Corbicula, Polymesoda, Mytilopsis and Ostrea can be found, sometimes forming concentrated layers. Gastropods including Potamides, Melanoides, Viviparus and Hydrobia are also abundant, representing a mix of freshwater and brackish conditions.

The Hamstead Member itself yields large numbers of freshwater molluscs, with Viviparus and Unio being particularly common. These can often be found loose on the foreshore or weathering out of softer sediments, sometimes in considerable quantities.

Although rarer, mammal remains are among the most significant discoveries from this site. These include isolated teeth and bone fragments from early mammals such as Palaeotherium and Anoplotherium, along with other small ungulates. These finds are often subtle and require close inspection to identify.

Careful, methodical searching is key to success. The most productive areas are typically found along the tideline and at the base of the cliffs, where recently eroded material accumulates. Many of the best finds are made by searching slowly and closely, often at ground level.

Sieving is highly recommended at Hamstead. By collecting sediment and processing it through a fine mesh sieve, it is possible to recover a wide range of small fossils, including seeds, teeth and micro-remains. Drying and sorting material at home can reveal an impressive diversity of specimens that would otherwise be overlooked.

GEOLOGY

The geology at Hamstead Cliff represents one of the finest exposures of late Eocene to early Oligocene strata on the Isle of Wight. This stretch of coastline provides a rare opportunity to examine much of the Bouldnor Formation, with sediments deposited around 34–37 million years ago during the Priabonian stage, when the area was dominated by rivers, lagoons and coastal wetlands.

The cliffs are largely formed from the Hamstead Member, which makes up the majority of the visible section between Hamstead and Yarmouth. These deposits consist of soft clays, marls and silts laid down in low-energy freshwater and estuarine environments. The fine-grained nature of these sediments reflects calm conditions, where material settled slowly in lagoons and floodplains. Today, these beds form gently sloping cliffs that are often vegetated and prone to gradual erosion.

Higher up the cliff, particularly towards Cranmore, the sequence continues into the Cranmore Member, representing a continuation of the Bouldnor Formation. Although broadly similar in composition, this unit reflects subtle environmental changes, likely linked to shifts in river systems, sediment supply and local water conditions during the closing stages of the Eocene.

At the base of the cliffs, especially well exposed at Hamstead Cliff, are the underlying Bembridge Marls. These older, late Eocene deposits consist of pale grey to greenish clays and silts, formed in shallow lagoonal and brackish environments. They mark an earlier phase of deposition before the establishment of the Hamstead Member and are an important part of the overall sequence.

The beds along this coastline dip only gently, but the cliffs remain highly susceptible to slumping, erosion and landslip, particularly following periods of heavy rainfall. This continual breakdown of the cliff is vital, as it exposes fresh sections of the Hamstead Member and Bembridge Marls, releasing fossil material onto the foreshore.

This is a detailed stratigraphic breakdown of the late Eocene to early Oligocene succession at Hamstead Cliff, Isle of Wight. The section exposes the top of the Bembridge Limestone Formation at Hamstead Ledge, the full Bembridge Marls Member on the foreshore, the Hamstead Member in the main cliff, and the Cranmore Member at the top of the western cliff, recording repeated shifts between freshwater, brackish, lagoonal, floodplain and more marine conditions.

SOLENT GROUP

Bembridge Limestone Formation (Upper Eocene)

Hamstead Ledge Freshwater Limestones

Bed HC1 — Freshwater Limestones Of Hamstead Ledge

Three freshwater limestone beds are developed at Hamstead Ledge at the eastern end of the section. These hard pale limestones form the resistant ledge on the foreshore and represent shallow freshwater to slightly brackish pond or marsh deposits laid down before the marlier Bouldnor Formation succession. Freshwater gastropods and associated lime-mudstone partings are typical, and the ledge provides the foundation on which the overlying Bembridge Marls are best examined at low tide.

Bouldnor Formation (Upper Eocene To Lower Oligocene)

Bembridge Marls Member

Bed HC2 — Bembridge Oyster Bed / HAM I–IV (c. 0.9 m)

Grey and black clays with shelly partings and a thin oyster shell bed at the base, resting on an omission surface above the Bembridge Limestone. This is the classic Bembridge Oyster Bed and records the main transgressive phase at the base of the Bembridge Marls. The fauna is low-diversity and brackish-water in aspect, with considerable water movement indicated by shell concentrations and comminution.

Bed HC3 — HAM V (c. 0.3 m)

Greenish-grey clay containing bands with Melanoides acuta, Serpula sp. and Viviparus lentus. This thin but distinctive horizon records fluctuating salinity and a mixed brackish to freshwater lagoonal fauna.

Bed HC4 — HAM VI–X (c. 2.7 m)

Grey and blue-green laminated clays with brackish-water bivalves and gastropods. Fine lamination and the restricted fauna indicate quiet-water lagoonal conditions, and these beds are among the best examples at Hamstead of the varve-like clay-silt lamination characteristic of the Bembridge Marls.

Bed HC5 — HAM XI–XIV (c. 3.3 m)

Mudstones and siltstones with a bivalve band. These beds remain mainly quiet-water lagoonal deposits but show slightly more silt input and local shell concentration. They are important in the cliff and foreshore because they mark the transition from the lower more strongly brackish beds into the more varied central part of the member.

Bed HC6 — HAM XV–XXII (combined middle Bembridge Marls interval)

This central interval includes black clay with gastropods, green mudstone with lignitic layers, green clays and white marls with bivalves, and freshwater clays and silts. It records repeated shifts between low-salinity lagoon, freshwater pond and floodplain-waterbody conditions. Beds in this part of the section may contain seeds, molluscs and shell bands, and it is one of the most environmentally variable parts of the Bembridge Marls at Hamstead.

Bed HC7 — HAM XXIII–XXV (c. 2.0 m)

Lignite and clay rich in water-plant seeds, leaf fragments and gastropods. This is one of the most distinctive plant-rich horizons in the whole Hamstead succession. Monocotyledonous leaf fragments and the water-plant seeds Brasenia and Stratiotes occur in association with Viviparus and the pulmonate Galba, showing very shallow standing freshwater rich in aquatic vegetation.

Bed HC8 — HAM XXVI–XXIX And HAM XXX (upper plant-rich Bembridge Marls)

Clays with seeds and molluscs followed by a thin lignite with seeds and molluscs. These beds continue the upper freshwater trend of the Bembridge Marls and are especially important for plant macrofossils, seeds and freshwater molluscs. They represent quiet lacustrine or floodplain-pool sedimentation with periodic accumulation of plant matter.

Bed HC9 — HAM XXXI–XXXIV (c. 10.2 m)

Green, red and mottled clays forming the top of the Bembridge Marls Member. These beds reflect increasingly terrestrial, floodplain and upper-lagoon conditions, with oxidation, mottling and intermittent emergence. Vertebrate material may occur toward the top, and the interval marks the approach to the palaeosol and omission surface below the Black Band.

Total Thickness Of Bembridge Marls Member At Hamstead Cliff: Approximately 21.5 Metres In The Reference Foreshore Section

Hamstead Member

Bed HC10 — Black Band (c. 0.5 m)

A carbonaceous black clay or lignitic mud marking the base of the Hamstead Member. At Hamstead Cliff it occurs low in the cliffs about 200 m east of the old line of posts and is one of the most important marker beds in the Oligocene section. Freshwater gastropods such as Viviparus are common, and autochthonous root systems penetrate the underlying palaeosol surface, showing that the base of the member is an omission surface with soil formation before renewed deposition.

Bed HC11 — Lower Hamstead Green And Black Clays (c. 8.1 m)

Green and black clays with bivalves and gastropods forming the lower Hamstead Member. These beds represent low-energy lagoonal to freshwater deposition and preserve the lower Hamstead fauna. Mudflows commonly obscure this interval in the cliff, but where exposed it yields molluscs, plant remains and vertebrates, including mammals in the broader Hamstead fauna.

Bed HC12 — Log Bed And Associated Lower Hamstead Deformed Sands

Within the lower Hamstead interval occurs a blue-grey clayey sand bed with ball-and-pillow structure, convolute bedding and large tree trunks, traditionally known as the Log Bed. It represents unstable, water-saturated sediment deformed soon after deposition, probably on a floodplain or delta-margin setting. Besides the wood, it may contain seeds of aquatic plants and leaf material, showing close proximity to vegetated freshwater bodies.

Bed HC13 — Nematura Bed (c. 0.9 m)

A black lignitic clay full of gastropods and one of the key dividing horizons within the Hamstead Member. Unlike the Black Band below, the Nematura Bed contains a distinctive brackish-water molluscan fauna and records renewed salinity increase. It is an excellent marker bed for separating the lower and upper parts of the Hamstead succession.

Bed HC14 — Lower Upper-Hamstead Green Clays With Ironstone Nodule Band (c. 10.8 m)

Green clays and silts with an ironstone nodule band and locally shell-bearing intervals. These beds make up a large part of the upper Hamstead Member at Hamstead Cliff and indicate renewed low-energy deposition on a broad lagoonal-floodplain plain. The interval is much obscured in places by landslip and mudflow but is important because it contains upper Hamstead vertebrate horizons in the broader Bouldnor–Hamstead section.

Bed HC15 — White Band (c. 1.8 m)

Green clays with pale white shell-marls forming a conspicuous marker within the upper Hamstead Member. It is one of the clearest light-coloured horizons in the cliff and indicates a return to shelly, somewhat more calcareous standing-water conditions. This bed is widely used as a field datum in the Hamstead cliff section.

Bed HC16 — Green And Red Marls (c. 2.0 m)

A thin but distinctive interval of green and red marls above the White Band. These beds are partly obscured in modern exposures but represent alternating oxidation and waterlogging on a floodplain or very shallow lagoon margin.

Bed HC17 — Water-Lily Bed (c. 0.6 m)

Laminated lignite rich in seeds, palm leaves, water-lily leaves and molluscs. This is one of the most distinctive plant beds in the Hamstead Member and indicates a quiet freshwater or very low-salinity waterbody with abundant floating and emergent vegetation. It is a key palaeobotanical horizon at Hamstead Cliff.

Bed HC18 — Upper Hamstead Green And Mottled Clays With Lignite Beds And Shell Beds (c. 25 m)

Green and mottled clays with shell beds and thin lignitic horizons forming the uppermost Hamstead Member. This interval contains important upper Hamstead vertebrate and mammal horizons, including the Eomys Bed within the broader upper Hamstead succession and levels that have yielded crocodiles such as Diplocynodon, turtles, fish and mammals. These beds record continuing alternation between freshwater, brackish and floodplain conditions during the early Oligocene.

Total Thickness Of Hamstead Member In The Main Hamstead Cliff Section: About 50 Metres Exposed, Within A Regional Member Thickness Of Roughly 58–78 Metres

Cranmore Member

Bed HC19 — Cerithium Beds (c. 3.4 m)

The lower part of the Cranmore Member, consisting of grey, blue and black fossiliferous clays with a more non-marine to brackish aspect. These beds are generally referred to as the Cerithium Beds and mark a sudden colour change from the brown-grey Hamstead clays below into bright greenish clays at the base of the member. They occur at the top of the cliff toward the west end of the Hamstead section.

Bed HC20 — Corbula Beds (c. 5.8 m)

The upper and more marine part of the Cranmore Member, with fossiliferous clays containing Corbula and other more marine molluscs. These beds show that salinity increased again toward the top of the Bouldnor Formation. They are capped by Plateau Gravel at the top of the western cliff and complete the youngest preserved Oligocene succession on the Isle of Wight.

Total Thickness Of Cranmore Member At Hamstead Cliff: Approximately 9.2 Metres

Depositional Environment

The Hamstead Cliff succession records repeated environmental shifts across the late Eocene to early Oligocene transition. The Bembridge Limestone formed in shallow freshwater pools and lakes, the Bembridge Marls record estuarine to lagoonal conditions passing upward into fresher floodplain-waterbody settings, the Hamstead Member records lagoonal, lacustrine and floodplain environments including lignites, log beds, shell-marls and important mammal horizons, and the Cranmore Member marks a return to more brackish and then more marine conditions at the top of the Bouldnor Formation.

Total Thickness Covered Here: Approximately 80–85 Metres Of Late Eocene To Early Oligocene Stratigraphy Across The Main Hamstead Cliff And Hamstead Ledge Section

References

Daley, B. (1972, 1973) on the Bembridge Marls and Hamstead succession of the Isle of Wight.
Insole, A. & Daley, B. (1985). Revision of the late Eocene and early Oligocene lithostratigraphy of the Hampshire Basin.
Hooker, J.J. and co-authors on the Hamstead mammal faunas and the Grande Coupure.
British Geological Survey Lexicon: Bembridge Marls Member and Hamstead Member.
Geological Conservation Review accounts for Bouldnor and Hamstead Cliffs.

EQUIPMENT

Fossil collecting around Hamstead Cliff is primarily focused on the foreshore, where fossils are typically found loose within shingle, soft clay or along the tideline. In most cases, no heavy equipment is necessary, and success relies mainly on careful observation and patience.

That said, a few simple tools can be very useful. A small trowel, pick or flat tool such as a screwdriver can help gently loosen fossils from soft marl or clay without damaging them. Many of the best finds—particularly tiny teeth and fossil seeds—are easily overlooked without slow, methodical searching at ground level.

As collecting often involves crouching or kneeling for extended periods, knee pads are highly recommended for comfort. A pair of fine tweezers is also extremely helpful when handling small or delicate specimens that are difficult to pick up by hand.

If you plan to sieve material, bringing a fine mesh sieve (around 1–2mm) and a container for sediment can greatly increase the number and variety of finds. The Hamstead beds are especially rich in small fossils that are best recovered using this method.

It is important to carry wrapping materials such as tissue, newspaper or small containers, as many fossils—particularly shells and fragile bone fragments—can be easily damaged. A bag or backpack will help transport your finds safely across the beach.

The foreshore can be uneven, muddy and slippery, so sturdy waterproof footwear is strongly advised. Overall, this is a location where attention to detail is far more important than heavy tools, and careful searching will often yield the best results.

SAFETY

Common sense should always be used when collecting at this location, and checking tide times is essential. The tidal conditions here can be unpredictable, with double tides sometimes affecting the coast. It is very easy to become cut off, so always plan to return before the tide turns.

The cliffs are prone to slumping, and the foreshore can be difficult to navigate. In places, soft mud and clay can be very deep and “sinky”, with a risk of becoming stuck, especially after wet weather. Care should be taken when walking across these areas.

Fallen trees and debris along the foreshore can also create trip hazards, particularly when moving between access points. Take care when stepping over obstacles and avoid climbing on unstable ground or landslips.

CLEANING AND TREATING

Begin by removing any loose sediment very carefully using a soft toothbrush. Once cleaned, fossils should be desalinated by soaking them in fresh water for at least 24 hours to remove residual salt. After soaking, allow specimens to dry naturally at room temperature. Do not dry them on radiators or other heat sources, as rapid drying can cause cracking or long-term damage.

Once fully dry, we recommend sealing fossils with Paraloid B-72, dissolved in acetone. This is a museum-grade consolidant that is widely available in pre-mixed bottles. Paraloid B-72 is stable, long-lasting, and does not yellow or react chemically over time. Importantly, it is also fully reversible, making it suitable for scientifically important or display-quality specimens.

ARTICLES

• Locations on the Isle of Wight: A personal view
• Daily lives of fossil reptiles

ACCESS RIGHTS

This site is a site of special scientific interest (SSSI). This means you can visit the site, but hammering the bedrock is not permitted. For full information about the reasons for the status of the site and restrictions, download the PDF from Natural England.

It is important to follow our ‘Code of Conduct’ when collecting fossils or visiting any site. Please also read our ‘Terms and Conditions‘

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