Lincolnshire is not one of the most productive areas in the UK for fossil hunting, largely due to the lack of significant coastal cliffs and foreshore exposures. As a result, fossil collecting opportunities are limited compared to other regions.
Most fossils are found within a small number of quarries, although access can be restricted and permission is often required. These sites typically expose Jurassic strata, which can yield marine fossils where accessible.
The inclusion of Rutland provides better opportunities, with oolitic limestone quarries such as Grange Top Quarry and Ketton Quarry offering more productive sites for collecting fossils from Jurassic deposits.
Top Grange Quarry, the old geological trail at Ketton in Rutland, records changing Middle Jurassic seas and coastal wetlands. Ooidal limestone, rooted mudstone and fossil-rich Blisworth Limestone preserve contrasting environments, with shells and other marine remains historically reported from loose quarry material. Jurassic, Disused Quarry, Rating: ♦♦♦
Anderby Creek is a broad sandy beach where occasional loose fossil-bearing stones can be found when tides uncover pebbly patches. Beneath the sand, Holocene peats and clays have preserved woodland plants, wetland remains and small shells, recording a changing coast long after the older fossils formed. Erratics (Jurassic, Cretaceous, Carboniferous), Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦
Chapel Point, beside the North Sea Observatory at the northern end of Chapel St Leonards, offers occasional ammonites, belemnites and other fossils in loose beach stones. Beneath the shifting sand, a much younger peat-and-clay succession records former woodland, saltmarsh and tidal channels. These protected Holocene deposits tell a different story from the older, transported fossils. Erratics (Jurassic, Cretaceous, Carboniferous), Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦
