The small fossil tip near Blaenafon is part of the wider Canada Tips mining landscape. Its weathered shale preserves Carboniferous plant fossils, from ribbed stems to patterned bark and rooting organs, offering a close view of the vegetation that helped build the South Wales coalfield.
DIRECTIONS
♦ From Blaenafon, take the B4246 north towards Pen-Ffordd-Goch Pond, usually called Keeper’s Pond. The wider visitor destination is signed Blaenavon.
♦ The original approach starts at the rough Y Tymbl car park on the left, near the “Monmouthshire / Sir Fynwy” road sign and opposite the “Y Tymbl / The Tumble” sign. Check local signs and avoid obstructing the road or access.
♦ Alternatively, use the signposted Keeper’s Pond car park a little further along on the right, then walk back to the Y Tymbl starting point.
♦ Follow the disused road westwards to the small tip at the coordinates below. Keep the parking references separate from the fossil site, and stay on established access routes.
♦ Y Tymbl car park: OS grid reference SO 254 106.
♦ What3Words parking area: ///playing.pints.pelt
♦ Latitude 51.788650, longitude -3.082648.
♦ N 51° 47’ 19.1382”, W 3° 4’ 57.5328”.
♦ Keeper’s Pond car park: OS grid reference SO 255 107.
♦ What3Words parking area: ///companies.stocks.finds
♦ Latitude 51.790195, longitude -3.081700.
♦ N 51° 47’ 24.69948”, W 3° 4’ 54.11928”.
♦ Small fossil tip: OS grid reference SO 252 106.
♦ What3Words collecting area: ///inhales.palaces.wrist
♦ Latitude 51.788949, longitude -3.085959.
♦ N 51° 47’ 20.216”, W 3° 5’ 9.452”.
FIND FREQUENCY: ♦♦♦ – Plant impressions occur in the weathered spoil, especially fine-grained grey mudstone; careful observation helps distinguish them from ordinary dark stains.
CHILDREN: ♦♦ – Loose spoil and steep edges require close supervision; this unlandscaped industrial site is unsuitable for very young children.
ACCESS: ♦♦♦ – A short walk along the disused road leads from the Y Tymbl parking area to the tip. Check current parking signs and ground conditions.
TYPE – Displaced mining spoil, with naturally exposed plant-bearing rock.
FOSSIL HUNTING
This guide concerns the small tip west of the Y Tymbl parking area, rather than every spoil heap in the wider Canada Tips landscape. Fine-grained dark-grey mudstone is the main material to inspect. Plant remains often appear as thin carbon-dark films or impressions on naturally exposed parting surfaces, sometimes barely contrasting with the rock beneath. Look slowly at accessible ground-level surfaces, using oblique light and a hand lens to make repeated patterns visible.
The original field account records Calamites, Cordaites, Lepidodendron, Lepidostrobus and Stigmaria. These are often names for particular plant organs, rather than five entirely separate kinds of tree. A piece of bark, a rooting organ and a cone tell different parts of a plant’s story, and isolated fragments should not be used to reconstruct a whole tree with certainty.
Calamites stems or casts show longitudinal ribs crossed by nodes. Cordaites leaves are long and strap-like, sometimes preserving fine parallel veins. A dark elongate mark alone is not enough: look for those repeated anatomical details, then photograph the whole fragment as well as a close-up.
Lepidodendron bark may preserve a regular pattern of diamond-shaped leaf cushions. Stigmaria rooting organs instead bear rounded rootlet attachment scars, sometimes spaced in a striking repeated arrangement. They belonged to arborescent lycopsids, but a detached rooting fragment cannot automatically be assigned to Sigillaria or assumed to remain in its original soil. Lepidostrobus is a cone-organ name; small incomplete pieces need particular caution.
The 2026 illustrated account of the wider Canada Tips records Sigillaria, Stigmaria, Cordaites and material attributed to Neuropteris. It is useful reading for comparing plant structures, but its specimens are not tied by recorded coordinates to this guide’s small tip. Treat them as wider-locality records rather than additional proven finds at this exact spot.
Siltstone and sandstone also occur in the spoil and can preserve impressions, but orange-brown staining does not by itself identify iron ore. Shiny black material may be coal; colour and fracture alone do not identify a plant fossil. The most persuasive evidence is a recognisable pattern of ribs, nodes, veins or scars.
Use naturally exposed surfaces at the foot of stable spoil and along established access routes, without entering steep drainage cuts or disturbing banks. Take a wider photograph showing the matrix and a close-up with a scale placed beside the fossil. Observe and photograph without digging, splitting or removing material while permission is unconfirmed; the access note below explains the distinction between public walking access and collecting rights.
Significant discoveries, geological research and conservation milestones at Blaenafon.
Early 1940s – The wider spoil landscape develops
Wartime opencast workings near Pwll Du produced spoil overlying older industrial remains. The Canada Tips name is associated with Canadian assistance and drilling equipment; the wider landscape history does not establish a construction date for this individual small tip.
2000 – Industrial landscape receives World Heritage recognition
Blaenavon Industrial Landscape was inscribed for its industrial significance. The wider protected landscape provides the historical setting for the spoil tips, although World Heritage status is not a grant of collecting rights.
27 June 2026 – An illustrated Canada Tips plant assemblage published
An account based on a March visit documented plant fossils from the wider Canada Tips, including bark, rooting organs, leaves and pinnules. The photographs broaden the published record of this spoil landscape, but are not tied to this small tip by recorded specimen coordinates.
GEOLOGY
The Canada Tips landscape exposes material associated with the South Wales Middle Coal Measures Formation, part of the South Wales Coal Measures Group. The formation dates from the Duckmantian to Bolsovian substages of the late Carboniferous. Grey mudstones and siltstones, subordinate sandstone, coal and fossil soils record a low-lying landscape of rivers, floodplains, wet ground and peat-forming vegetation.
Fine sediment settled in quieter water and buried plant fragments, which could be transported or broken before burial. Compression and alteration left dark films and impressions on bedding surfaces. Coarser sediment records more energetic transport, including river and flood deposits, while coal represents peat transformed during burial. Together these rocks reveal changing environments rather than one static forest preserved exactly where every plant grew.
The tip itself is a product of mining: rock was excavated, moved and tipped out of its original position. It therefore has no intact upward bed order. A mudstone slab can show what sediment and plant material were like, but its position on the heap cannot establish the coal seam or marine band from which it came. The regional formation is well supported for the landscape; individual loose specimens need a more cautious provenance.
The wider Blaen Pig workings have their own described sections and named seams. Those records should not be transferred to this small tip as though it were a measured exposure. The useful detail here lies in recognising the different rock types, the preservation of plant organs and the effects of weathering on disturbed spoil.
Detailed geology and stratigraphy of Blaenafon
This section concerns the small tip at 51.788949, -3.085959, within the wider Blaen pig and Canada Tips geodiversity site. The tip consists of moved mining spoil. The components described below are not a measured oldest-to-youngest succession, and individual slabs have no established seam or bed provenance.
SOUTH WALES COAL MEASURES GROUP
South Wales Middle Coal Measures Formation
The formation is Duckmantian–Bolsovian, within the late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian). It contains grey coal-bearing mudstones and siltstones, seatearths and subordinate sandstone. The regional environment included vegetated floodplains, channels, wet ground and peat accumulation, interrupted by changes in sediment supply and occasional marine incursions. The landscape-level attribution is supported by the geodiversity-site classification; it does not give each loose fossil a known position within the formation.
Fine-grained plant-bearing mudstone and shale. Dark, fissile rock is the principal fossil-bearing material described in the original guide. Thin carbonaceous compressions and impressions lie on parting surfaces. Fine sediment settled in quieter water and buried plant organs that could have been transported, detached or broken before burial. Nodes and ribs on Calamites, leaf veins in Cordaites, bark patterns in Lepidodendron, cone material recorded as Lepidostrobus and rootlet scars in Stigmaria are more informative than colour alone.
Siltstone and sandstone. Coarser rock fragments reflect more energetic sediment transport within the Coal Measures river and floodplain system. They should not be assigned to a particular named channel sandstone without provenance. Rust-coloured weathering is not, on its own, evidence that a block is haematite ore. Some surfaces preserve plant impressions, but fine shale generally allows the most detailed examination of compressed plant remains.
Coal fragments. Coal represents peat altered by burial. Shiny black surfaces can be suggestive, but a black fragment or a particular fracture pattern does not by itself identify coal or a plant organ. The tip contains material displaced during mining, so a coal fragment cannot safely be linked to a named seam from its present location.
Seatearths and marine bands: regional context. Fossil soils and marine bands are important components and markers in the regional Coal Measures succession, but they have not been independently identified as particular exposed beds in this small tip. The formation is regionally defined from the base of the Vanderbeckei (Amman) Marine Band to the top of the Cambriense (Upper Cwmgorse) Marine Band. These boundaries are not claimed to be visible here. No regional formation thickness is presented as a measured thickness of the tip.
Disturbed spoil and correlation limits. The named seams, Black Pins Rock and marine-band correlations described at the Blaen Pig backwall northwest of this tip belong to separate exposures. They cannot be borrowed to create a numbered log here. Detached rooting organs in the spoil also do not prove an original rooted soil or allow an exact reconstruction of forest structure. The June 2026 illustrated plant assemblage comes from the wider Canada Tips; its specimens are not coordinate-linked to this guide’s small tip.
References
BGS Lexicon: South Wales Middle Coal Measures Formation
Barclay, 1989: Geology of the Abergavenny district
Natural Resources Wales: Regionally Important Geodiversity Sites
Museum Wales: Carboniferous Welsh plant fossils
Trevelyan, 2026: illustrated plant fossils from the wider Canada Tips
SAFETY
This is an unlandscaped former industrial site with uneven ground, loose shale, steep spoil edges and potentially concealed debris. Stay clear of unstable banks, former workings and steep drainage cuts; do not dig into slopes or climb tip faces.
Wear footwear with a good grip and keep children closely supervised. The exposed upland setting can become cold, wet or windy quickly. Take suitable clothing and a charged phone, and allow enough time to return along the established route in daylight.
EQUIPMENT
Bring a camera or phone, hand lens, small scale and notebook. Photographs and careful observation are the main tools here. Sturdy footwear, weather protection and drinking water are useful for the upland approach. Extraction tools are not recommended while removal and tool permission remain unconfirmed.
CLEANING AND TREATING
Do not clean, split or excavate material in place. Photograph naturally exposed fossils, recording the matrix and the fact that the material is spoil rather than assigning an unverified seam.
For specimens already held lawfully, or obtained later with explicit permission, keep matching part and counterpart together and support thin shale flakes on a rigid tray. Gentle dry brushing under magnification is preferable to vigorous scrubbing; some mudstones break down when soaked. Do not use acid or grind and polish plant-bearing surfaces.
Flaking specimens may need individual conservation advice. Avoid routine coatings and improvised solvent containers. A specialist can assess whether consolidation is appropriate and explain safe handling without obscuring the fossil’s fine detail.
IDENTIFY YOUR FINDS
Need help identifying a fossil? Share clear photos, where you found it and its size with the community.
FURTHER READING
Deposits Magazine: Canada Tips, reconstructing a Carboniferous forest from a handful of fossils
Museum Wales: Carboniferous Welsh plant fossil spotter sheet
British Geological Survey: plant fossils
BGS Lexicon: South Wales Middle Coal Measures Formation
BGS: Geology of the Abergavenny district
Blaenavon World Heritage Site: walking trails
ACCESS RIGHTS
Public access is available here, and fossil collecting has been reported. Permission to remove material, split rocks or use a trowel has not been confirmed. Check with the landowner or managing body before doing so; meanwhile, enjoy the fossils by observing and photographing them in place. Keep to established access routes and leave the historic earthworks undisturbed.
The small tip lies on common land within the Blaen pig and Canada Tips Regionally Important Geodiversity Site. Public walking access and geodiversity recognition do not themselves grant collecting permission. The surrounding Blaenavon Industrial Landscape also contains protected historic remains, so follow local signs and avoid disturbing other workings.
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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Barry Taylor. Last inspected 2024 Updated 2024
