Haven Cliff at Seaton, has had some large landslides in recent years. The Chalk and Upper Greensand contains fossil echinoids, ammonites and bivalves. There are plenty of rocks and fresh falls to look through, especially at low tide along the foreshore.
DIRECTIONS
♦ The best place to park to access Haven Cliff, is the small parking area along the B3172 before crossing the bridge into Seaton. Parking is free.
♦ Follow the footpath to the East which takes you down Harbour Cottages road, just before the harbour and round by the Seaton Angling & Kayak Centre.
♦ Continue down the concrete path all the way until it comes to an end. Continue to walk East along the pebble beach.
♦ Parking: Postcode EX12 4AA, Google Maps
♦ Fossil Location: What3Words: ///bicker.trend.undertook
PROFILE INFO
FIND FREQUENCY: ♦♦♦ – The variety of geology at Seaton means you never know what you might find. Echinoids and ammonites are the most common find.
CHILDREN: ♦ – This location is not suitable for children as the cliffs are too dangerous
ACCESS: ♦♦♦♦ – Free parking and an easy walk to the foreshore. Plenty of parking and lots of shops nearby. Seaton is a major tourist resort and so can be busy during peak times.
TYPE: – Most fossils are found in the fallen blocks, which can be seen on the foreshore and at the bottom of the cliffs in the scree.
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FOSSIL HUNTING
Haven Cliff at Seaton (east of the River Axe) can be surprisingly productive because the beach and foreshore are constantly replenished by fallen blocks and washed-out material from the cliffs and slips. The best collecting is always from the loose shingle, fresh rockfall and recently exposed boulders on the foreshore, where fossils weather free naturally. Do not dig into the cliffs or banks, and do not hammer in-situ faces — this is both unsafe and unnecessary here, as the worthwhile specimens come to the beach through erosion and collapse.
Most finds at Haven Cliff are from hard, pale blocks and nodular pieces that stand out among the darker, more rubbly material. These are the ones to target, as they most often yield clean, recognisable fossils. The most characteristic and regularly encountered finds are echinoderms and bivalves. Look for isolated echinoid spines (often robust, pencil-like or tapered) from cidarids, and fragments of echinoids such as Micraster and Holaster (often as worn tests or plates). Bivalves are common as internal moulds and battered shells — thick-shelled oysters such as Pycnodonte and Gryphaea-type oysters are typical beach finds, along with frequent plate-like fragments of Inoceramus (often preserved as chunky, prismatic shell pieces).
Cephalopods also turn up, though less consistently than the shells and echinoid material. Small ammonites occur occasionally, especially as limonitic casts or impressions in harder blocks; likely finds include Sciponoceras and Neocardioceras-type fragments where the moulding is crisp. Straight, pencil-like belemnite guards are occasional too — typically weathered, brown-grey “bullets” — and when they appear they are often referable to Praeactinocamax-type guards rather than the more slender Jurassic forms. These are most often found by slow scanning of the shingle and the base of fresh falls rather than by breaking rock.
Other fossils are more sporadic but worth watching for. Fish material is usually fragmentary: isolated teeth (small, glossy points) and enamelled bone fragments. Trace fossils can be common in the right stones: burrowed, mottled blocks and tube-like structures are worth a second look, especially if the surface is freshly cleaned by the sea.
The most fossiliferous ground is usually where new debris has accumulated: the margin of recent slips, the fresh apron of blocks at the foot of the cliffs, and the “sorting zones” where the tide leaves lines of shingle and pebbles. After storms or strong onshore winds, a quick visit can be far more productive than hours at low-energy times, because new surfaces and fresh fragments appear overnight. Work methodically: scan for shapes first (spines, guards, shells), then check any pale, harder blocks for impressions and moulds. If you do break anything, only split loose material that is already on the beach, and keep it minimal — many of the best pieces here are found intact, already weathered proud on the surface.
Finally, this is a location where patience pays. Most fossils are not large showpieces, but there is a steady chance of good, displayable oyster shells and inoceramid fragments, crisp cidarid spines, and the occasional standout ammonite fragment or belemnite guard — especially if you focus on freshly fallen blocks and the most recently washed shingle lines rather than older, weeded-over rubble.
GEOLOGY
The cliffs between the outfall of the River Axe at Seaton and Culverhole Point are a two-tier coastal section, with a low sea cliff cut into Late Triassic rocks and an upper cliff made of much younger Cretaceous strata. The lower sea cliff gives a near-continuous exposure of the highest part of the Mercia Mudstone Group, dominated by red and green mudstones that weather into steep, ribbed faces and slumped foreshore blocks. In the lowest exposed parts the mudstones are typically reddish-brown and silty, often with lines of green mottling and occasional thin green bands, the classic “Keuper Marl” look. Up-section the colour banding becomes more obviously striped as red and green beds alternate more regularly, reflecting a shift away from the driest desert conditions. Above this, the succession passes into greener and greyer mudstones with thin limestone ribs, marking the Blue Anchor Formation and recording a late Triassic change from hot, inland sabkhas to wetter coastal flats and increasingly brackish, marginal-marine conditions. Gypsum nodules and subtle soft-sediment disturbance can occur toward the higher parts, consistent with shallow coastal lagoon and tidal-flat settings.
Structurally, this low sea cliff is not a simple “layer cake”: faults trending roughly parallel to the coastline can repeat parts of the sequence, so the same packages of red–green mudstones and greener Blue Anchor beds may reappear along the shore. Above the Triassic sea cliff there is typically a bench or undercliff covered in debris derived from the upper cliff, formed where landslides have shed large volumes of Cretaceous material down onto the slope. The upper cliff itself is built of Upper Greensand and Chalk, and it is the contrast between relatively permeable sands above and weaker mudstones below, combined with active coastal erosion, that helps drive instability and keeps exposures changing. At the eastern end toward Culverhole Point, the relationship between the Triassic rocks and the overlying units becomes more complex, with faulting and unconformable contacts locally visible where beach cover is minimal; this is also where freshly undermined blocks and toppled masses can reveal clean surfaces and sharp boundaries.
SAFETY
Common sense when collecting at all locations should be used and prior knowledge of tide times is essential. The sea often reaches the base of the cliffs at Seaton and it is easy to be cut off with no access back to Seaton. The main danger is falling rocks, landslides and cliff falls frequently occur so stay away from the base of the cliff face.
EQUIPMENT
Fossils here are very hard, so either containers or bags are suitable to get them home. However, you will need a heavy hammer, chisel and safety goggles to split some of the rocks. It is also a good idea to take a trowel to extract some excellent fossil shells.
ACCESS RIGHTS
Seaton is an SSSI and is part of the Jurassic World Heritage Coastline. You can collect fossils but hammering the Bedrock (insitu deposits), is not allowed.
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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