The low cliffs and chalk foreshore at Birchington offer a quiet search for echinoids and other Chalk fossils. Finds are scattered, and patience is more useful than expecting a large collection.
FIND FREQUENCY: ♦♦ – Generally sparse. Worn echinoid outlines are more common than complete specimens.
CHILDREN: ♦♦♦ – Supervised children can explore suitable exposed shore, but gullies, slippery chalk and tides need care.
ACCESS: ♦♦♦♦♦ – Cliff Road gives access through the low cliffs to the promenade; steps lead onto the foreshore.
TYPE: – Loose beach fossils and fossils visible in the wave-cut chalk platform. Leave in-situ material undisturbed.
DIRECTIONS
♦ Approach along Cliff Road at Birchington and use lawful roadside parking where available, following current signs.
♦ Take an established path through the low cliffs onto the promenade, then use public steps to reach the foreshore.
♦ Ref: 51.38299°N, 1.28904°E
FOSSIL HUNTING
Birchington is a place for patient inspection of exposed chalk and loose beach stones. The soft, comparatively flint-poor Margate Chalk gives the shore a less obviously banded appearance than the cliffs around Broadstairs, and fossils can be widely scattered. From the established foreshore access below Cliff Road, choose a small, safely accessible patch of clean rock or detached chalk and examine it carefully. The natural platform is useful for learning what fossils look like in their matrix, but any collecting should be restricted to permitted loose material.
Echinocorys is the most conspicuous echinoid in the local field record. A well-preserved example has a rounded, domed test, but many Birchington specimens are represented by a ring or oval section worn almost flat with the chalk. Look closely for a thin shell edge, plate boundaries or small pore rows around that outline. The sea may already have removed much of the fossil; a circular mark does not mean that a complete sea urchin waits below it. Photograph these examples in place rather than attempting to chisel them out.
Other recorded echinoids include heart-shaped Micraster and conical Conulus. Their outline is a useful first clue, while the arrangement of plates and paired pores provides stronger evidence. Check the underside of a loose specimen when it can be handled safely, and keep enough chalk around thin tests to support them. In flint, an echinoid can be represented by a solid internal mould after the original shell has disappeared. Wear may leave too little detail for a reliable species identification, even when the genus is recognisable.
Bivalve fragments offer another target. The photographed local finds include substantial inoceramid hinge pieces, so a broken shell edge can be more rewarding than a search confined to rounded echinoid shapes. Retain its natural outline and any surviving growth markings. Sponges may be recognised by repeated pores or a distinct body pattern in chalk or flint; isolated holes and shapeless lumps are not enough. Occasional belemnites are also recorded. These are solid, tapering guards from the internal skeleton of squid-like animals, quite different from a hollow shell fragment.
Visibility changes with sand, shingle, algae and seaweed cover. The local account found winter surfaces less obscured, but a clear patch in calm conditions matters more than the season alone. Do not scrape living growth away to expose a fossil or venture across flooded gullies to reach cleaner chalk. Follow the Thanet Fossil Code, take only a small number of common loose finds and leave the platform intact. Label finds with the precise beach position and whether they came from chalk or flint; photograph unusual material before seeking specialist advice.
A chronological record of geological research and significant milestones at Birchington.
1960–1962 – Coastal Chalk reassessed
The geological resurvey of the Ramsgate district used detailed fossil collecting and measured sections to revise the Chalk zonal map, including the low cliffs and foreshore around Birchington. Its resulting maps and photographs preserve a valuable record of the coast before further engineering changes.
1988 – Birchington coast documented in the district memoir
The geological memoir published the Epple Bay cliff and platform record within its account of the north Thanet Chalk, helping relate these low exposures to the folded succession around the island.
References
Shephard-Thorn (1988), Geology of the country around Ramsgate and Dover, sheets 274 and 290
Thanet Coast Project, Fossil Code
Hubbard (2021), Thanet anticline’s shifting shorelines: Two millennia of change
Thanet Coast Project, Nature designations
Mortimore, Wood & Gallois (2001), Thanet Coast, GCR 23
BGS Lexicon, Margate Chalk Member
BGS Lexicon, Newhaven Chalk Formation
Natural History Museum, What is a fossil? specimen fragility and pyrite decay
Existing UK Fossils Birchington guide
GEOLOGY
Birchington’s low cliffs and wave-cut foreshore expose Santonian chalk of the Margate Chalk Member, the local expression of the Newhaven Chalk Formation within the White Chalk Subgroup. This is a soft, smooth marine limestone formed from carbonate-rich sediment on the Late Cretaceous sea floor. It is notably poor in both flint and marl, giving the outcrop a more uniform white appearance than the strongly banded Seaford Chalk around the eastern side of Thanet. The same formation is much more conspicuously marly in Sussex: the Margate name identifies this distinctive local rock character.
The apparently plain chalk nevertheless contains evidence of the animals that inhabited the sea and its floor. Inconspicuous iron-stained sponge horizons interrupt the succession, while the Birchington field account records echinoids such as Echinocorys, Micraster and Conulus, with bivalves and occasional belemnites. These larger fossils stand out against the fine matrix, but erosion may expose only a cross-section or worn outline of an echinoid rather than a complete test. The sea-washed rings visible in the platform therefore represent partly exposed or partly destroyed fossils, not necessarily whole specimens just beneath the surface.
Flint is scarce rather than entirely absent. At the eastern headland of Epple Bay, nodular flints with trace-fossil forms occur on the low-tide platform, and a sheet-flint lies high in the cliff towards Westgate. Flint developed within the sediment after deposition; these local bands help distinguish levels within otherwise similar chalk. They provide a more appropriate local framework than transferring the complete named sponge-bed succession from White Ness to Birchington.
The present shore also reflects the way the rock breaks down. At Epple Bay, closely spaced joints and faults divide the chalk into blocks and guide the development of caves. Marine erosion cuts across those fractures and exposes fresh surfaces on the platform, while detached chalk is progressively worn away. Weed cover and changing beach material can conceal the same surfaces on another visit, so visibility of the fossil-bearing bedrock varies even where its geology has not changed.
Detailed geology and stratigraphy of Birchington.
CHALK GROUP
The white rock is a marine limestone accumulated from carbonate-rich sediment during the Late Cretaceous. Flint formed within the sediment after deposition rather than being a layer of lava.
WHITE CHALK SUBGROUP
The local succession belongs to the flinty and flint-poor white chalks traditionally included in the Upper Chalk. Formation boundaries are based on rock character, whereas the zones used in many older accounts are based on fossils.
Newhaven Chalk Formation
The local expression of this formation is the Margate Chalk Member. Its conspicuously flint-poor, marl-free appearance differs from the marl-rich succession at the formation’s Sussex type area.
Margate Chalk Member
The member is predominantly smooth, soft, white chalk, with scarce flints and inconspicuous iron-stained sponge horizons. Its basal surface is immediately above Barrois’ Sponge Bed. This definition does not mean that the basal bed is exposed at every locality where the member occurs.
Local flints and joints at Epple Bay
At the eastern headland of Epple Bay the low-tide platform includes sparse nodular flints with conspicuous trace-fossil forms. A sheet-flint occurs high in the cliff and continues towards Westgate. Closely spaced joints and faults break the chalk into blocks and guide cave development. The Epple Bay flints provide local features within an otherwise nearly flintless succession.
References
Shephard-Thorn (1988), Geology of the country around Ramsgate and Dover, sheets 274 and 290
Mortimore, Wood & Gallois (2001), Thanet Coast, GCR 23
BGS Lexicon, Margate Chalk Member
BGS Lexicon, Newhaven Chalk Formation
SAFETY
Check tide times and conditions, keep a clear return route, and leave before the rising sea reaches your exit. Water can fill the platform gullies.
Wear footwear with good grip. Weed-covered chalk is slippery, and low cliffs can still shed rock. Tell someone where you are going and when you expect to return.
EQUIPMENT
Wear sturdy footwear with a strong grip and carry a small bag, individual padding, labels and a hand lens. Bring suitable clothing, drinking water and a charged phone.
For a beachcombing visit, leave hammers, chisels and digging tools at home. Do not carry heavy rocks or overfill a bag on slippery ground.
CLEANING AND TREATING
Keep a label with the exact locality, date and, where known, the bed. Pack each chalk fossil separately with padding and support fragile shells with their surrounding matrix. Begin with a soft dry brush after gradual room-temperature drying; do not force chalk away from thin echinoid tests or crinoid plates. Avoid acids, bleach and routine varnish. Flint specimens are best retained as naturally weathered finds, rather than struck to chase a fossil into the nodule. Leave unusual or potentially important specimens unprepared for specialist assessment.
IDENTIFY YOUR FINDS
Need help identifying a fossil? Share clear photos, where you found it and its size with the community.
FURTHER READING
Hubbard (2021), Thanet anticline’s shifting shorelines: Two millennia of change
Mortimore, Wood & Gallois (2001), Thanet Coast, GCR 23
BGS Lexicon, Margate Chalk Member
Shephard-Thorn (1988), Geology of the country around Ramsgate and Dover, sheets 274 and 290
Thanet Coast Project, Fossil Code
ACCESS RIGHTS
Follow the Thanet Fossil Code: beachcomb for a small number of common loose fossils, leave the cliff and shore platform intact, and avoid digging or using tools. Keep away from cliff bases and freshly fallen material while further falls remain possible. Record the precise position of unusual finds and report them. Landowner permission remains necessary on privately owned parts of the shore. The voluntary collecting code and the site’s statutory nature-conservation designations are distinct.
It is important to follow our ‘Code of Conduct’ when collecting fossils or visiting any site. Please also read our ‘Terms and Conditions’.
LINKS
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