Scalby Ness is known for Middle Jurassic plant fossils, including ginkgoalean foliage, in the Long Nab Member. Shale slabs and channel sandstones preserve different parts of this ancient vegetation, while tidal channels and rough wet rocks make careful shore planning essential.
FIND FREQUENCY: ♦♦♦ – Plant fossils occur in a limited area; good specimens depend on suitable loose material and preservation.
CHILDREN: ♦♦ – The rocky approach needs close supervision and confident footing; young children may struggle.
ACCESS: ♦♦♦ – Approach from Scalby Mills, but the natural shore northwards is tidal and uneven.
TYPE: – Loose plant-bearing slabs where permitted and observation of fixed shale and sandstone exposures.
DIRECTIONS
♦ Head to the Scarborough Sea Life Centre and Scalby Mills council car park, YO12 6RP. Parking now uses ticketless payment; read current signs for seasonal charges.
♦ Walk down to the shore and continue north towards Scalby Ness only when tide, swell and footing allow a safe return. The natural foreshore contains rough rocks and tidal channels.
♦ The car park’s opening hours do not establish all-tide shore access. Follow any current path closures and turn back before the route becomes threatened.
♦ Original broader locality reference: 54.30501°N, 0.40768°W. This is not an independently verified parking pin.
FOSSIL HUNTING
Plant-bearing silty shale can preserve compressed leaves and reproductive organs; channel sandstone also contains charcoalified wood. Examine already loose material where collection is permitted, supporting delicate slabs and keeping part and counterpart together. Do not extract plants from fixed cliffs or undermine sandstone.
The Ness is especially important for Ginkgo huttonii and Czekanowskia blackii. Other recorded material includes Coniopteris bella and the common Otozamites graphicus. A detached leaf, seed or cone is not automatically part of the same plant as another fossil found nearby.
Published records distinguish the Plant Bed, Ginkgo Bed in beach and Brown Ginkgo Bed at the Ness. Separate Scalby Wyke and Scalby Beck records must not be treated as additional proven beds vertically stacked here. A loose beach slab should retain an uncertain bed attribution unless its source is established.
Photograph promising material and preserve fragments and labels. Reproductive organs and scientifically unusual specimens deserve specialist assessment before preparation; unnecessary washing or glue can destroy useful evidence.
A chronological record of discoveries, research and conservation at Scalby Ness.
1831–1837 – Early plant specimens illustrated
Lindley and Hutton illustrated Yorkshire plant material associated with Williamson’s collecting. These early studies form part of the locality’s long collecting history; they do not establish a single discovery day.
1929 – Channel deposits and plant beds interpreted
Black’s work examined the local sedimentary structures and plant-bearing deposits, establishing relationships between channel sandstone and finer plant-bearing beds.
1946–1979 – Harris develops the Yorkshire flora
Harris’s studies and the Yorkshire Jurassic Flora volumes documented plant organs and their associations. His locality records distinguish the Ness, Wyke and Beck plant occurrences, which are not interchangeable names for one bed.
1971 – Pityanthus scalbiensis described
Johanna van Konijnenburg-van Cittert described Pityanthus scalbiensis, with its holotype from the Scalby Ness Ginkgo Bed. Its distinctive saccate pollen helped characterise the cone. This original description is separate from Harris’s later whole-plant interpretation and does not show attachment to a Ginkgo tree.
1984 and 1986 – Scalby Ness and the wider coast protected
Scalby Ness was first notified as an SSSI in 1984. The formal citation records the wider Iron Scar and Hundale Point to Scalby Ness revision in 1986.
1992 – The buried succession documented
Lott and Humphreys described borehole evidence beneath Scalby Ness. It revealed substantial underlying Jurassic units, but these subsurface thicknesses do not describe the exposed beach section.
1999 – Fossil wood and the plant localities reassessed
Morgans studied charcoalified wood, including records assigned to Cedroxylon and Cupressinoxylon. A guide by van Konijnenburg-van Cittert and Morgans also brought together the region’s important plant localities.
GEOLOGY
The Long Nab Member of the Scalby Formation, within the Ravenscar Group, records Bathonian river channels and vegetated floodplains. Laminated mudstone and siltstone alternate with fine- to medium-grained sandstone, planar bedding and cross-stratification, with plant fragments and rooted sediment.
The local plant assemblages preserve foliage and reproductive organs in fine sediment, while charcoalified wood in channel sandstone represents a different mode of preservation. Their interpretation depends on the original bed and matrix, not merely on a plant name.
The three named Ness plant records are a locality inventory with no secure published vertical spacing. The expanded account keeps them distinct from four records at Scalby Wyke and three at Scalby Beck; it does not draw a ten-bed measured succession.
A borehole beneath the Ness establishes deeper strata, but those subsurface units should not be described as exposed along the foreshore. Regional accounts of the Moor Grit and underlying Scarborough Formation provide context rather than extra collecting beds at this precise plant locality.
Detailed geology and fossil-bearing horizons at Scalby Ness.
RAVENSCAR GROUP
The plant-bearing deposits belong to the predominantly non-marine Middle Jurassic succession of the Cleveland Basin. At Scalby Ness, the key exposed fossil horizons are within the Scalby Formation rather than the older Gristhorpe Plant Bed.
Scalby Formation
Bathonian river and coastal-plain deposits include a lower sandstone-dominated Moor Grit Member and an upper Long Nab Member. At the Ness the accessible plant-bearing beds lie near the base of the Long Nab Member; a regional formation description should not be mistaken for an uninterrupted exposure of both members at this point.
Long Nab Member
Silty plant-bearing shale above basal sandstones reaches the cliff foot because of gentle seaward dip. The plant material occurs at several levels within channel-related deposits. Fragmentation shows transport, but excellent preservation and associated reproductive organs suggest that at least part of the flora travelled only a short distance.
Scalby Ness Plant Bed
The named Plant Bed comprises plant-bearing silty shale just above the base of the Long Nab Member. Plants occur at several levels rather than in one universally traceable paper-thin seam. The assemblage includes Ginkgo huttonii, Coniopteris bella and Czekanowskia blackii. Published observations interpret deposition within a river channel.
Recognising the Scalby Ness flora
Ginkgo huttonii leaves are deeply divided, commonly into six rounded-ended segments; preserved cuticle can retain diagnostic surface structure. Coniopteris bella has rounded fern pinnules, while Czekanowskia blackii bears narrow, repeatedly forked leaves on short shoots. The conifer Brachyphyllum mamillare has short, tightly appressed leaves in a spiral arrangement. These characters are observations from documented specimens, not sufficient on their own for every fragmentary field identification. Scalby Ness is the documented type locality for Ginkgo huttonii and Czekanowskia blackii. Otozamites graphicus is also recorded as relatively common; no forced replacement of historical Zamia gigas is made without separate taxonomic evidence.
Reproductive organs and charcoalified wood
Rare seeds, bud scales and male organs have been associated with the ginkgoalean leaves. The published conifer reconstruction links Cyparissidium blackii foliage, Pityanthus scalbiensis male cones and Scarburgia billii female cones; the latter two have type-locality significance here. Charcoalified Cedroxylon and Cupressinoxylon wood occurs in channel sandstone. These different organs and preservation styles should retain their matrix and locality labels.
Scalby Ness Ginkgo Bed in beach
Harris’s locality list distinguishes this beach occurrence from the other Ness records. Ginkgoalean leaves, including Ginkgo huttonii, are the site’s chief palaeobotanical interest; associated seeds, scales and pollen organs are important to whole-plant reconstruction. The location list supplies neither a separate measured thickness nor a secure vertical spacing from the Plant Bed, so this record is not turned into another stage in a measured stack.
Scalby Ness Brown Ginkgo Bed
A separately named plant-bed occurrence in Harris’s list. The name Brown Ginkgo Bed does not establish a unique lithology, bed thickness, age or independent fauna. The published location records distinguish it from the beach Ginkgo Bed without demonstrating a complete vertical correlation between the two.
Neighbouring Scalby Wyke records
Black’s Bed E, the Drifted Bed, Black’s Bed G and the Otozamites Bed are separately listed as Scalby Wyke occurrences. The Wyke drifted flora includes water-worn fragments deposited in channel fill under sandstone reefs. These records should not be relabelled as the three Ness horizons or arranged beneath them in a supposed measured sequence.
Scalby Beck records
Harris also distinguished sand above black clay, black clay, and a sandy layer at Scalby Beck. These are separate mapped records in the vicinity of the stream, not evidence for three additional named horizons in a continuous Ness cliff log.
Buried succession beneath the Ness
A Yorkshire River Authority borehole at Scalby Ness penetrated 17.8 m of Quaternary cover, about 27.5 m of Scalby Formation, about 21 m of Scarborough Formation and about 37 m of Cloughton Formation, ending in the Sycarham Member. These are subsurface thicknesses. They must not appear as exposed foreshore thicknesses or as an invitation to seek older formations in the Ness plant beds.
References
Cleal & Thomas (2001), Scalby Ness, GCR 22, pp.92–96
Cox & Sumbler (2002), Iron Scar–Hundale and Hundale Point–Scalby Ness, GCR 26
GCR 22 tables, including Table 3.7
SAFETY
Rough wet rocks, weed and tidal channels can make the northward shore walk difficult. Check tide and swell, allow a generous return margin and turn back before water threatens the route.
Keep clear of unstable cliffs, overhangs and recent falls. Do not dig plant beds or undermine sandstone. Closely supervise children and do not confuse convenient parking with easy access across the natural shore.
EQUIPMENT
Use grippy sturdy footwear and carry tide information, a phone, hand lens, camera or notebook, and rigid padded supports for loose slabs. Fixed beds are best observed and photographed rather than split.
CLEANING AND TREATING
Support the complete shale slab and retain its counterpart and loose fragments. Carbon films and cuticle can detach through washing, rubbing or glue; dry slowly in stable conditions and avoid routine PVA, varnish or soaking.
Charcoalified and pyritised material require different conservation decisions. Keep provenance on the storage tray as well as the wrapper, monitor unstable specimens and seek specialist help for significant organs or deterioration.
IDENTIFY YOUR FINDS
Need help identifying a fossil? Share clear photos, where you found it and its size with the community.
FURTHER READING
Deposits: Bringing the best out of your fossils
Cleal & Thomas (2001), Scalby Ness, GCR 22, pp.92–96
GCR 22 tables, including Table 3.7
Cox & Sumbler (2002), Iron Scar–Hundale and Hundale Point–Scalby Ness, GCR 26
Natural England: Iron Scar & Hundale Point to Scalby Ness SSSI citation
North Yorkshire Council: Scalby Mills car park
Van Konijnenburg-van Cittert (1971), In situ gymnosperm pollen from the Middle Jurassic of Yorkshire
ACCESS RIGHTS
The Ness is included in the Iron Scar and Hundale Point to Scalby Ness SSSI, with its earlier Scalby Ness notification distinguished from the later wider revision. The original linked citation provides background. Follow current landowner and management rules, preserve in-situ scientific surfaces and observe any temporary closure; protected status does not itself grant permission to collect.
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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