Central Wales is well known for its Ordovician fossil sites, particularly those yielding trilobites from these ancient marine deposits. A number of locations expose fossil-rich strata, making the area important for collecting early Palaeozoic material.
Little Wern is one of the best-known sites, providing access to trilobite-bearing rocks, while nearby Bettws offers similar deposits, although specimens are often fragmentary. These locations are typically found in old quarries and exposed sections.
Additional sites across the region, including streams, cuttings, and natural outcrops, provide further opportunities to collect Ordovician fossils, making Central Wales a key area for trilobite collecting in the UK.
Upper Gilwern Quarry, near Howey in Powys, is known for its well-preserved Ordovician trilobites, from tiny growth stages to occasional complete specimens. Its fine-grained rocks record an ancient marine environment. This privately owned quarry is available to booked accommodation guests under the operator’s current access and collecting conditions. Ordovician, Private Quarry, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
These series of disused quarries, in Llandrindod Wells, are rich in trilobites and graptolites. The largest of the quarries has deep water (also shown on OS maps), and is now fenced over following an accident in which a child sadly drowned. A second quarry, slightly further to the northeast, contains no water and has easy access, with productive shales. Ordovician, Disused Quarry, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
A small stream cutting near Bettws exposes Ordovician mudstone with occasional trilobite fragments and graptolites. Its dark, fissile rocks offer a close view of marine life preserved in a much older succession than many of the surrounding Silurian hills. Ordovician, Stream cutting, Rating: ♦♦
Cwm Craig Ddu’s roadside siltstones preserve small marine shells and rare fragments of early land plants. This Silurian quarry near Garth is important for understanding plants that grew on land while their remains were carried into a neighbouring sea. Silurian, Roadside Cutting, Rating: ♦♦♦
