Various fossils, such as belemnites and bivalves, can be found along the beautiful and unspoilt coastline to the southeast of Kilmarie. Views from the beach are magnificent. Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
Where to find fossils and what to find. UK Fossils features hundreds of fossil collecting locations in the UK, with geological guides and fossil hunting events.
Tag: Fossils
Aberlady
This is a peaceful location where fantastic bryozoans can be seen in Carboniferous rocks. You can also find many slabs of the tracks of trilobites, preserved in the mud over which they crawled. Fish and the trilobites themselves can also be found here. Carboniferous, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Haddington
The River Tyne is a long and beautiful river. Its tributaries wind their way down from the glacially eroded Lammermoor and Pentland Hills. The river gains volume as it crosses the alluvial plain, cutting through the carboniferous country rock, transporting minerals and fossils along the way. Carboniferous, River Section, Rating: ♦♦♦
Pentland Hills
This is an area extremely rich in Silurian fossils, but which is also a challenging place to collect fossils from. The locations discussed in the guide are suitable for those who are used to exploring and walking. However, it is a beautiful landscape, with many different types of fossils to be collected. In fact, the area is famous for its rich diversity of fossil species, some of which are unique. Silurian, Cuttings, Outcrops, Disused Quarries, Streams, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Dalmellington Tip
When visiting the village of Dalmellington, you cannot help but see the huge spoil heap. This is now disused, but contains plenty of material to search through, including black shale that is rich in fish remains. Plant remains can also be found. Carboniferous, Spoil Heap, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Dob’s Linn
Dob’s Linn is a famous location for graptolites and, indeed, is one of the best, and you can collect many different species form the shale. However, the location can be hard to find, but it is well worth the trip. Be sure you bring paper to wrap up your specimens. Ordovician, Silurian, Cuttings, Outcrops, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Barns Ness
Spectacular bedding packed with corals can be seen at Barns Ness. This is a fantastic location for corals and there is plenty to be found here, although the fossils are not as well preserved as those from Aberlady. Carboniferious, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Aldons Quarry
The volcanic rocks at Aldons Quarry contain a variety of Ordovician fossils, including trilobites, brachiopods, bivalves, cephalopods, gastropods, graptolites and goniatites. They can be found in mudstones, which can be seen in the scree slopes. Ordovician, Disused Quarry, Rating: ♦♦♦
Glenmard Wood
This is a very productive little quarry that is easy to access. It is an occasionally worked quarry, which is fully accessible from the trackway. This means fresh faces and scree are available to search through. Take plenty of paper for bags of finds, but, be warned, it involves quite a long walk. Ordovician, Part Working Quarry, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Craighead Quarry
Ordovician rocks at Craighead Quarry are very fossiliferous and this disused quarry is often visited by local schools and colleges to study the fossils and geology at this site. While it is now quite overgrown, there is still plenty to be found. The most common finds are graptolites, brachiopods, trilobites and goniatites. Ordovician, Disused Quarry, Rating: ♦♦♦
Woodland Bay
The rocks at Shalloch (to the south of Girvan) to Whitehouse, including Woodland Bay, contain fossil graptolites and trilobites. Girvan is a well-documented area for fossils and is one of the most popular areas to collect in Scotland. This foreshore location is easy to access, but you will need the correct tools. Ordovician, Silurian, Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
Annbank
This famous, but now over-collected location, once yielded a rich variety of plant remains from the Coal Measures. It can be hard to find and the beds are so over-collected that fossils are now hard to find. Carboniferous, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦
Ardwell Bay
Ardwell Bay, south of Girvan, is the best coastal location in the area for finding fossils. Graptolites are the most common, with orthocone fragments and trilobites also being quite common. In addition, brachiopods can be found. The rocks you need to split are easy to identify, being black when weathered. Ordovician, Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Joppa Shore
Along the seafront at Edinburgh, Carboniferous rocks yield fossil plant remains, crinoid stems and shells. Most of the best beds have been over-collected, but there are still lots of fossils to be found. Carboniferious, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Auchinleck Tip
This spoil heap is partly still being used and partly disused. Most of the waste material contains limestone and shale that is poor in fossil remains. However if you can find the right rocks, then plant remains can be found. However, these are often poorly preserved, but, as with all tips, you never know what you might find. Carboniferious, Spoil Heap, Rating: ♦♦♦
North Berwick
The rocks at North Berwick are volcanic tuffs, but cementstones within a small zone of tuff contain fish remains and 23 species of pteridosperms and lycopods. Carboniferious, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦
Kennedy’s Pass
At Kennedy’s Pass, there is a formation that is full of conglomerate units, mudstones, siltstones and sandstones. Within this, you can find a wide range of fossils, including trilobites, graptolites, corals and brachiopods. However, they are not easy to find. The productive beds are lower down, which are mostly covered up by the less productive upper beds. Ordovician, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Queensferry
Below the Forth Road and Forth Rail Bridge, Carboniferous fish fragments and plant remains can be found in the shale. It can take some time to find the fossiliferous zones, but once you do, there is plenty to be collected. Carboniferious, Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
Dalmellington Burns
There are a few burns around the village of Dalmellington, which have cut into fossiliferous Carboniferous shale. The most common finds are mussels, but plant remains can also be found. This location is best visited after a dry spell, because, if the water is too high, the beds are not exposed. Carboniferious, Stream Cutting, Rating: ♦♦
Kirkcudbright
The coastline to the south of Kirkcudbright has low cliffs of shale, which is also exposed along the foreshore. There are several areas where the shales contain fossils from certain zones, although these are very hard to find. Graptolites, cephalopods and crustaceans can all be found. Silurian, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦
Seaton Sluice
Seaton Sluice at the north end of Whitley Bay is an excellent chance to collect fossils from the Carboniferous coal measures. Coal itself can be seen in the rocks which are also rich in plant remains, corals and bivalves. An easy location to access and fossils are common. Carboniferous, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Beadnell
Blocks of shale packed with Carboniferous brachiopods and more can be collected at Beadnell. The location is a great one to explore. It has excellent access and is also suitable for children.Carboniferous, Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
Berwick-Upon-Tweed
Many pretty coral fossils can be seen in the rocks on the beach north of where the River Tweed meets the sea. Smaller coral pebbles can be collected, while larger examples in boulders can be observed. Carboniferous, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
Howick
This secluded location offers a surprisingly varied selection of fossils over a little more than a kilometre of coastline. Trilobites, crinoid pieces, corals, brachiopods, plant fossils, trace fossils and more can be found here. Carboniferous, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Scremerston
A good location at which to find a range of Carboniferous fossils, including crinoidal limestone and corals, as well as plant remains and trace fossils in sandstone. Carboniferous, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
What is a fossil?
The word Fossil used to be defined as ‘something dug up’. Now-a-days it generally means ‘The remains or trace evidence of prehistoric life’. The study of fossils is called palaeontology; someone who collects and studies them is called a palaeontologists. Fossils can be as tiny as a grain of pollen or a seed for e.g. or as huge as a limb bone from a giant dinosaur. For animal or plant remains to have become ‘fossilised ‘, they must go through a certain process that preserves them for up to millions of years after they have died. Usually it is only the hard parts of plants and animals that survive this long process.
How Fossils Formed
The most common method of how fossils formed is once an animal or plant dies, it falls to the ground, and is covered by sediment. This is often sediments brought from water. Of the vast amount of prehistoric life that died, it is only a tiny amount that has survived the fossilisation process. The conditions when the majority of life died were just not right at that time, to preserve them.
Where to find fossils
Fossils can be found in many places, most fossils are found on the beach or in quarries but many have been found in some very unusual places. Below is a list of places that you could find fossils. Please note some places such as quarries and farm fields need permission before you can enter, other places where fossils form part of the construction such as sea defences and walls, should not even be attempted. Damaging other peoples property is not only illegal, but morally wrong.
Equipment Guide
When fossil collecting, you will need the correct equipment. Often, each location will differ and of course depending on the weather and time of the year, you will also need to consider the correct clothing.If you are collecting in a quarry, there are important health and safety requirements by law. These are that you must wear a hard-hat, high visibility jacket and steel-toe-cap boots. This guide explains the recommended equipment you should take, both for your own safety and also the tools you might need.
An Introduction to Ammonites
Ammonites (Ammonitida) were shelled cephalopod molluscs that lived throughout the world’s oceans during the Mesozoic (Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods) and they were an extremely successful order, as evidenced by the frequency with which their […]
An Introduction to Foraminifera
Foraminifera (forams) are single celled organisms belonging to the Protista kingdom. Their fossils have been found in rocks from the Cambrian period onwards, and they are still living and abundant today. Forams generally inhabit marine […]
The Basics of Classification
When different types of fossils are talked or written about, they are often given complicated Latin names, such as Dactylioceras commune, Neohibolites minimus and Stigmaria ficoides. These names can sound a bit daunting and you […]
Stratigraphy and Stratigraphic Nomenclature
What is stratigraphy? The word ‘stratigraphy’ is used to describe the study of rock layers or strata. The most fundamental principals employed within this discipline are: The law of superposition, which states that, within any […]
Labeling and Coding
Labelling and coding your collection is vital. Too often, museums acquire private collections and struggle to find data about each find. Basic information, such as the exact location, zone and formation are essential, together with […]
Extracting microfossils from flint
Flint meal is a rich source of siliceous microfossils. The material is often packed with sponge spicules, as well as foraminifera and ostracods. To collect flint meal unweathered, fresh flints recently eroded out of chalk […]
Extracting microfossils from Lower Chalk
Microfossils can be obtained from the Grey Chalk Subgroup (formerly the Lower Chalk, minus the Plenus Marls) with great ease. This rock has a high clay content in comparison with the whiter chalks and breaks […]
Sheppey Fossils
A comprehensive guide to the Early Eocene, Ypresian fossils of the London clay of the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, UK. The site covers an identification guide, coastal erosion, geology, and even the minerals. It is […]
Fossils of the Gault CLay
This site is dedicated to the fossils of the lower cretaceous Albian (Gault Clay and Folkestone Beds) in the county of Kent, south-east England. In particular the beautifully preserved faunas of the Gault Clay are […]
Deposits Magazine
The Magazine on Fossils, Geology & Minerals. Deposits is both a printed and online magazine featuring articles by high profile authors. Deposits is a full colour glossy 52 page high quality earth science magazine. It is […]
A Collection of Eocene and Oligocene Fossils
This Web Site displays more than 2,000 of the characteristic fossils of the Eocene and Oligocene deposits of England. It is hoped that this provides a useful resource for those wishing to identify their own […]
British Chalk Fossils
These pages are designed as a general guide for all those interested in the fascinating fossils of the British Chalk. Hopefully this will be a useful resource for academics and students alike, whilst at the […]
Waterloo Bay
Just outside of Larne town centre and north of Larne harbour, Co. Antrim is Waterloo Bay, where important exposures of Triassic and Jurassic rocks can be found, specifically the Waterloo Mudstone Formation, part of the Lias Group. Although the Triassic Penarth Group rocks are not particularly fossiliferous, the blue lias yields early Jurassic fossils including ammonites, belemnites and gryphaea. The cliffs and platforms are protected however many washed out loose fossils can be found. Jurassic, Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
White Park Bay
Ten kilometres northwest of Ballycastle in Co. Antrim is White Park Bay. Successive layers of rock yield Mesozoic fossils including ammonites, belemnites and Gryphaea. However, the cliffs and platforms are protected, but many loose blocks containing fossils and some washed out fossils can be found. The beach is also known as one of the few places in the world to have “singing sand” – when conditions are right, the extremely fine sand vibrates to make a humming noise. The location is also known as a historic manufacturing hub for flint axes and arrow heads, due to the abundance of flint nodules found in the cliffs, with artefacts dating back as far as 8,000 BC. The landscape also features passage tombs looking out over the sea, where, on a clear day, the coast of Scotland can be seen.Cretaceous, Jurassic, Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
Portmarnock Beach (Non-UK)
North of Portmarnock, on the east coast of Ireland to the east of Dublin, is a short stretch of coastline with abundant exposures of Carboniferous rocks in foreshore platforms, containing beautifully preserved crinoids, bryozoans, bivalves, corals and brachiopods. The cliffs and platforms are protected, but many pebbles are washed out from the exposures along the coastline between Malahide and nearby Portmarnock.Carboniferous, Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Malahide Beach (Non-UK)
To the east of Malahide town centre is a small beach on which it is easy to find loose carboniferous fossils and limestone pebbles containing beautifully preserved crinoids, bryozoans, bivalves, corals and brachiopods. The pebbles are washed out from exposures along the local coastline, including foreshore platforms found between Malahide and nearby Portmarnock.Carboniferous, Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Hook Head (Non-UK)
Southeast of Waterford and southwest of Wexford is the Hook Head peninsula, which is remarkable for the abundant, beautifully preserved Carboniferous fossils, at its furthest reach by the Hook Lighthouse. The outcrops around Hook Head consist of abundant exposures of Lower Carboniferous rocks in foreshore platforms, containing beautifully preserved crinoids, bryozoans, bivalves, corals and brachiopods. The cliffs and platforms are protected, but many loose fragments can be found containing significant numbers of jumbled fossils of all types, with superbly preserved detail.Carboniferous, Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
