Durham is best known for its Permian fossil fish, although these are typically only accessible from working quarries. Along the coast at Cleveland, Jurassic formations continue from Yorkshire, providing fossil hunting opportunities around the Redcar area.
Redcar is a safer location for collecting, particularly for beginners, and commonly yields rolled Jurassic fossils. Nearby Saltburn features some of the tallest cliffs on the east coast of England and is a good location for finding trace fossils.
Overall, Durham offers a mix of Permian and Jurassic material, with coastal exposures providing accessible collecting sites for a range of fossil types.
Saltburn’s Lower Jurassic cliffs and rocky foreshore yield belemnites, bivalves, brachiopods and ammonites. Search the loose beach material east of the beck, where fossils weather from several different rock units beneath Hunt Cliff; the harder sandstone and ironstone blocks can be difficult to prepare. Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Redcar’s shingle beach at Millclose Howles, beside the Stray between Redcar and Marske-by-the-Sea, offers an accessible introduction to fossil hunting. Look for rolled ammonite fragments and bivalves among loose pebbles. The fossils have been reworked, so individual finds need careful identification; this is a tidal beach, and children need supervision even beside the easily reached shore. Jurassic, Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
At Blast Beach, south of Seaham, waves rework old colliery spoil beneath pale Permian cliffs. The shale and sandstone brought up during mining contain Carboniferous plant fossils, including leafy fragments, stems and pieces of larger trunks, making this a distinctive place to explore the area’s coal-mining past. Carboniferous, Spoil, Cliffs, Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Skinningrove’s rocky shore is a useful place to examine Jurassic shell beds, animal burrows and rippled sandstone. The collecting area lies east of the beck, where hard fossiliferous blocks cover parts of the foreshore. Observation and photography are often more rewarding than trying to extract fossils, and the difficult, tidal route needs careful planning. Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦
