Stocker Hole is a large disused quarry to the south of Radstock, The quarry has a footpath running right through the middle and contains Carboniferous Black Rock Limestone. Corals, and brachiopods are the most common fossils here, with Bryozoans also being found. Carboniferous, Disused Quarry, Rating: ♦♦♦
Brown’s Folly is located in a nature reserve. Fossils can be found everywhere in the old quarries in the area and many exposures of Great Oolite can be seen. The reserve is managed by the Avon Wildlife Trust and kept clear by the Bath Geological Society. The site is an SSSI, so no hammering on the bedrock is allowed, but loose material can be picked up and collected. Jurassic, Disused Quarry, Rating: ♦♦
The entire section of coast along Compton Bay provides a worthwhile day out, with opportunities to find pieces of dinosaur bone (mostly rolled) and possibly teeth; and to see the large number of dinosaur footprints scattered along the coast. This section is famous for the remains and footprints of dinosaurs, for which the Isle of Wight is famous. Both commonly occur on the foreshore. Cretaceous, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
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Yaverland is one of the most famous fossil collecting locations on the Isle of Wight, renowned for its dinosaur remains, vertebrate fossils and classic Wealden exposures. However, despite its reputation, success here depends heavily on conditions. The site can often appear unproductive, particularly during the summer months when the foreshore is covered, but after winter storms and spring tides, fresh material is exposed and excellent finds can be made. Due to its popularity, the site is also heavily collected, meaning patience and persistence are essential. Cretaceous, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
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Brook Bay is one of the Isle of Wight’s most famous dinosaur localities, where teeth, bone fragments, fossil wood and reptile remains are regularly found with careful searching. Most material is worn, but storms and beach scour can reveal fresh specimens. The bay is also renowned for its dinosaur footprints, preserved both in situ and as natural casts on the foreshore, making it a key site for dinosaur discoveries. Cretaceous, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦📺 VIDEO
The early Oligocene beds exposed along the coastline at Hamstead Cliff are exceptionally rich in fossils, particularly remains of mammals, crocodiles, turtles, fish and crustaceans. In addition, a wide variety of molluscs, plant material and fossil seeds can often be found scattered across the foreshore. This stretch of coast is widely regarded as one of the most productive fossil locations on the Isle of Wight, offering a remarkable diversity of finds for those willing to search carefully.Oligocene, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
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Brighstone Bay is famous for the partial sauropod skeleton found by Portsmouth University, and reptile and dinosaur remains are often found along this coastline. Barnes High was also featured on the live television programme, ‘The Big Dig’. Cretaceous, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
Shepherd’s Chine and Whale Chine are superb locations that yields some superb fish remains, lobsters, ammonites, brachiopods, bivalves, and occasional reptile and dinosaur bones. During the right conditions, you can come back with some great specimens. Cretaceous, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
The early Oligocene beds along the Coastline at Bouldnor Cliff (Near Hamstead) is highly fossiliferous in mammal, crocodile, turtle, crustaceans and fish remains. Molluscs, plants and seeds can also be found simply lying on the foreshore. It’s one of the most productive locations on the Island for Fossils providing a rare glimpse into life on land and in coastal lagoons around 33–37 million years ago. Oligocene, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
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Whitecliff Bay is a geologist’s heaven. Where else can you collect from the Upper Chalk, London Clay, Reading Clay, Bagshot Beds, Bracklesham Beds, Barton Clay, Fishbourne member, Cliff End Member and Totland Bay Member, plus much more? Eocene, Cretaceous, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Bembridge Foreland is an important Isle of Wight fossil site, where the Bembridge Limestone and Bembridge Marls are exposed across the foreshore as a broad wave-cut platform and scattered rock outcrops. Best searched on a low tide, these beds are well known for their shelly fossils, especially gastropods and bivalves weathering from the limestone onto the shore. At foreshore level towards the south-west of the bay, the Bembridge Oyster Bed is regularly washed out and is the main source of the site’s vertebrate material, including turtle, crocodile and mammal remains.Eocene, Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
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In a peaceful corner of the Isle of Wight, Rocken End is a less visited location with a small inland quarry. It is ideal for anyone interested in ammonites and other molluscs, and also makes for an excellent day out for all the family. Cretaceous, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
Shanklin is a very good location on the Isle of Wight for Lower Greensand fossils, in particular, dinosaur remains and molluscs. When the Lower Greensand is exposed to air and left to dry, it becomes extremely hard. However, when fresh and, especially when exposed on the foreshore, it is like clay. Cretaceous, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
Whitby is one of the most iconic fossil localities on the Yorkshire coast, renowned for its rich Jurassic heritage and dramatic cliff scenery. While access to parts of the foreshore is tide-dependent and requires careful planning, the rewards can be considerable. The area is celebrated for its abundant ammonites, marine reptile remains and diverse shell beds, as well as for jet — fossilised wood from ancient conifer-like trees that became highly prized in Victorian jewellery. Its reputation means it is rarely quiet, but with patience and good timing.Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
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Saltwick Bay is one of the most productive sites on the Yorkshire Coast, well known for its abundant ammonites, reptile remains and marine fossils. The foreshore is rich in fossiliferous nodules, often easy to split and frequently yielding well-preserved specimens. The bay is also famous for jet, a form of lignite historically used in jewellery, adding to its geological and historical significance.Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
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Port Mulgrave is one of the most productive fossil sites on the Yorkshire Coast, famed for its abundant ammonites and rich Jurassic marine fauna. Once a thriving ironstone mining harbour, the foreshore now yields a wide range of fossils, including reptile remains, belemnites and nodules packed with ammonites, often exposed after cliff falls and erosion. With its combination of historical interest and exceptional fossil potential, it remains a must-visit location for serious collectors.Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
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Kettleness is one of the most productive fossil sites on the Yorkshire Coast, especially renowned for its abundant reptile remains, often found loose or within nodules along the foreshore. The site is also highly regarded for its ammonites, similar to those found at nearby Port Mulgrave, making it a top location for collectors seeking both vertebrate and invertebrate fossils.Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
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Staithes is a popular and accessible Yorkshire Coast locality, well known for its abundant and easily prepared ammonites. These are commonly found within nodules along the foreshore or weathering out from ledges, often requiring only minimal effort to collect. While productive and close to access points, the foreshore near the beach entrance can be extremely slippery, so care is needed when conditions are wet.Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
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Robin Hood’s Bay is one of the most geologically important sites on the Yorkshire Coast, known for its diverse ammonite fauna and extensive Jurassic exposures. While much of the central bay is covered by boulder clay, the foreshore and reefs to either side can be highly productive. Success here depends on conditions and experience, but with careful searching, a wide range of ammonites and other marine fossils can be found.Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
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Runswick Bay is a highly regarded Yorkshire Coast locality, known for its diverse ammonite fauna and productive foreshore exposures. Under the right conditions, the bay can yield a wide range of ammonite species along with bivalves and other marine fossils, often found loose or within nodules. With its broad beach and regular fresh material from erosion, it can be a very rewarding site for collectors.Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
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Reighton Gap is a useful stop along the Yorkshire coast, offering a mix of Kimmeridge Clay fossils and glacial erratics. When exposed, the clay can yield ammonites and marine shells, although productive layers are often covered and depend on scouring tides. The overlying boulder clay is particularly interesting, producing erratic fossils from Jurassic, Cretaceous and even Carboniferous rocks, giving a wide variety of finds in one location.Jurassic, Erratics (Jurassic, Cretaceous, Carboniferous), Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
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Hayburn Wyke is one of Yorkshire’s most important and rewarding plant fossil localities. This site exposes Middle Jurassic rocks that have yielded an exceptional diversity of fossil flora. The fine-grained sediments here preserve delicate leaf impressions in remarkable detail, offering a rare glimpse into the lush, humid landscapes that bordered the Jurassic sea around 170 million years ago. Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
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Speeton Cliffs are one of the most important Lower Cretaceous sites in the UK, with the highly productive Speeton Clay yielding ammonites, fish, shells and crustaceans. Often compared to the famous Folkestone Beds, the foreshore can be very rewarding under the right conditions. It is also a great location for families, although the clay can become extremely sticky and difficult underfoot in wetter months.Cretaceous, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
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It is quite a long walk down to the beach, but ammonites are well preserved and often found at this location. They can be found both at the north and south end of Ravenscar, but unfortunately, there is very little beach material and cliff falls are rare. Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦
Cayton Bay yields ammonites and some superb gastropods, bivalves and brachiopods from the Oxford Clay. These are best found on extreme low tides on the foreshore. This location is best during scouring conditions. Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
This is a very good location if you are into plant remains. The Gristhorpe Plant Bed yields some of the best specimens in Yorkshire. There is a wide variety of plants too, but ammonites and shells can also be found at this location. Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
Filey Brigg is a very famous foreshore platform that extends a long way out at low tide. Many walk along the Brigg, but often do not realise that superb plants and shells can be collected near the cliffs next to it. Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
Scalby Ness is another good location for collecting plant remains. It is not as highly productive as other Yorkshire locations, due to the limited area. However, you can still find some very good plant remains from the boulders on the foreshore. Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
You can find reptile remains on the foreshore, along with many ammonites and shells. One of the problems is that the foreshore is extremely slippery and there are very few rocks to search through. It can also be covered with algae. Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦
The Long Nab Member exposed at Crook Ness yields the occasional plant remains or brachiopod. However, fossils are not easy to find and this location is overgrown in places, but is ideal for an alternative day out (but not recommended if time is limited). Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦
Barton-on-Sea is one of the UK’s most famous Eocene fossil sites, with the Barton Clay yielding hundreds of species of shells, particularly gastropods. The foreshore regularly produces shark teeth, fish remains and occasional mammal fossils, often found loose after erosion. With abundant material and easy collecting, it is an excellent location for both beginners and experienced collectors alike.Eocene, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
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Taddiford Gap is a classic site and well documented for mammal and crocodile remains. Shark and other fish remains, along with a wide range of microfossils, can also be found. The latter can be found by sieving from the Crocodile and Mammal Beds. There is also a black bed of sediments containing a huge variety of fossils seeds. Eocene, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Milford on Sea provides an excellent opportunity to collect a wide range of fossil seeds from the Headon Hill Formation. These are in very good condition, but you will need to take samples home for processing using a sieve. Ironstones can also be found containing bivalves and gastropods. Eocene, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
During scouring conditions, The famous ‘elephant bed’ is exposed at Stansore point, yielding various mammal remains. To the western end of the car park, fossils can be found in the many blocks both along the footpath to the cliffs and the foreshore. At the western end, foreshore Eocene clays yield microfossils. Pleistocene, Eocene, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
At Brownwich Cliff, fossiliferous septarian nodules of Bracklesham age are washed onto the shore from offshore deposits. The cliffs at both Brownwich Cliff and Chilling Cliff can occasionally yield fossil molluscs, but the best deposits are those from below beach level, which are full of brachiopods and other molluscs. Pleistocene remains can also be found washed from the gravel beds. Pleistocene, Eocene, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
At Beckton Bunny, the continuation of the Barton Beds yield brachiopods, gastropods and bivalves. However, the shells are far more sporadic than at Barton on Sea and tend often to be broken. During scouring, exposure of the Chama Beds yields the best specimens. Eocene, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦
Latchmoor Brook is one of the only places where you can collect fossils in the New Forest. They come from the uppermost Bracklesham Group sediments and the lowermost Barton Clay. The stream and banks are very shallow, which makes collecting here far easier than other stream-based locations. Gastropods, bivalves and fish remains are all common here. Eocene, Stream, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Walton-on-the-Naze combines early Eocene teeth, wood and rare vertebrate remains with the abundant marine shells of the much younger Red Crag. Tides and erosion continually change the beach, making some visits far more productive than others. Search loose material with care, keep away from the unstable cliffs and plan around the restricted tidal access. Pliocene, Eocene, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Butts Cliff on the River Crouch is known for small early Eocene shark and fish remains weathered from the London Clay. Crabs and exceptional bird fossils add to its scientific importance. Search permitted loose material carefully, keeping well clear of soft estuary mud and unstable banks and using the signed riverside route. Eocene, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Maylandsea’s low banks and foreshore yield London Clay lobsters and small fish remains, often among naturally weathered nodules and shingle. The site records an early Eocene marine environment, while shifting modern silt controls what can be seen. Deep tidal mud makes careful route choice essential. Eocene, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
The tidal foreshore at Harwich exposes the Harwich Stone Band, a hard, ash-bearing horizon formed in an early Eocene sea. Loose beach material can yield shark and fish teeth, fossil wood and seeds. The most useful patches change as waves move the shingle and sand, so careful searching matters more than covering a large area. Eocene, Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
East Mersea preserves ancient river channels and their fossil wildlife beside the tidal shore at Cudmore Grove. Early Eocene London Clay underlies much younger deposits containing shells, wood and mammal remains. The Middle Pleistocene channel at Cudmore Grove is distinct from younger hippopotamus-bearing deposits farther west, and both need careful protection. Pleistocene, Eocene, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Steeple Bay exposes a London Clay foreshore with fossil lobsters, crabs, teeth and crinoid fragments. Finds are often small and are best sought among permitted loose material when tidal silt has cleared. The early Eocene marine fossils must be distinguished from much younger marsh deposits and archaeological material. Eocene, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Wrabness offers early Eocene fossils along the tidal shore of the River Stour. Teeth, fossil wood and small fruits or seeds can occur among weathered beach material, while the cliffs reveal volcanic ash layers in the Harwich Formation beneath the lowest London Clay. Beach cover changes with the tides, and soft mud and unstable cliffs require care. Pliocene, Eocene, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
Stansgate’s tidal shore contains a fossil-bearing London Clay platform, often partly hidden by modern silt. Lobsters, crinoid stems, molluscs and occasional teeth record an early Eocene sea. This quieter locality needs patient searching and a safe route around the estuary mud, with access kept separate from working farm and sailing-club land. Eocene, Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
Beltinge, near Herne Bay, is one of the UK’s premier locations for collecting fossil shark teeth, attracting collectors from across Britain and Europe. The foreshore exposes the famous Beltinge Fish Beds, which can yield a wide variety of shark, ray and fish remains. While fossils can be found year-round, the site is most productive during very low spring tides, when the richest layers are exposed and large numbers of teeth can be collected under the right conditions.Eocene, Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
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Warden Point on the Isle of Sheppey is the most popular site for collecting London Clay fossils. Easily accessed, with lots of fresh fossils constantly being washed out. A wide variety of fossils, can be found including everything from turtles, lobsters and crabs to sharks’ teeth, snakes, crocodiles, molluscs and plant remains. Eocene, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Folkestone is internationally famous for the ‘Channel Tunnel’, but also for the cliffs of Gault Clay at Copt Point and in the Warren and East Wear Bay. These rapidly eroding cliffs yield a vast range of ammonites, crabs, echinoids, belemnites, brachiopods, bivalves and much, much more. Cretaceous, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Minster on the Isle of Sheppey is another excellent site for collecting London Clay fossils and often has different fossils from those at Warden Point. Plant remains (especially seeds and fruit) are particularly common at this end, with the smaller fossils amongst areas of pyrite being the easiest to collect. However, a longer walk is required to get to the fossiliferous areas, compared with Warden Point. Eocene, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
When beach conditions are favourable, Tankerton can be a very productive site. Rich in fish, lobsters, crabs, gastropods, bivalves and sharks’ teeth, a diverse range of species can be found here. London Clay is exposed on the foreshore, mostly in patches, but, during scouring conditions, more extensively. Eocene, Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
