Levington is a location on the River Orwell, where London Clay is exposed in large cliffs and on the foreshore. It has yielded a large number of reptile remains, including one complete skeleton. Eocene, 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
Covehithe
Unlike the other nearby Norwich Crag locations, Covehithe does not yield mammal remains, although they can occasionally turn up, washed from the seabed or from nearby Easton Wood. What makes Covehithe interesting is a series of thick shell beds below beach level, where shells are exposed in life position, along with a black carbon layer containing fossil seeds. This is the only place where these can be found in the Pliocene Crags. Glacial flint fossils can also be collected. Erratics (Cretaceous), Pliocene, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦
Nacton
Nacton Shore is a location on the River Orwell, where London Clay is exposed in a small cliff and on the foreshore. The foreshore at Nacton and Levington has yielded a large number of reptile remains, including one complete skeleton. Eocene, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦
Ketton Quarry
Ketton Quarry is over a mile wide – its size has to be seen to be believed. The rocks here contain ammonites, corals, brachiopods, bivalves, fish and reptile remains, and much, much more. This is a superb location to visit. The quarry has recently been designated SSSI status. Jurassic, Working Quarry, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Hopes Nose
Hopes Nose is a headland two miles east of Torquay, which forms a finger-like rocky tip at the northern end of Torbay. All around this area are fossils, together with remnants of extinct corals which were formed when the Devonian seas were relatively shallow. The best place to see these is on the foreshore at Hope’s Nose when the tide is low. It’s in this area where you’ll also find Devonshire cup corals (Caryophyllia smithii) and brachiopods. Hope’s Nose is an SSSI location, so collecting from, or hammering the bedrock, is not permitted. However, it remains one of the most famous locations for Devonian corals, trilobites and bivalves in the UK. In fact, the Natural History Museum in London has many specimens on display from this site. Devonian, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
Daddy Hole
Daddy Hole was once a highly productive quarry, but now forms part of the Torquay coastline. It is rich in Devonian corals and is now an SSSI. Corals can be found in both the quarry and scree slopes on the foreshore. Devonian, Cliffs, Disused Quarry, Rating: ♦♦♦
Hunstanton
The famous red and white cliffs of Hunstanton are visited by thousands of people each year simply to see this spectacular natural geological feature. The Red Rock and White Lower Chalk are rich in fossils including echinoids, fish, sharks’ teeth, bivalves and brachiopods, ammonites and more. Cretaceous, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Mortimer Forest
This location consists of a series of locations along a designated geological route in Mortimer Forest. You can collect a large number of superb corals, brachiopods, bivalves and trilobites from various cuttings and all the fossils are in superb condition. It is an excellent walk too. Silurian, Cuttings, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Vinnels
This location is so over collected that you have to crawl into the cutting and it can be hard to get any decent rock samples for splitting, but the rewards are worth the hard work. Superb trilobites and graptolites in excellent condition can be found, and some are complete. Silurian, Stream and Cuttings, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
The Onny Trail
This is another walk along a designated geological route visiting two stream sections and two further cuttings, including an old railway cutting and a quarry. The rocks here are Silurian, Ordovician and Pre-Cambrian. Shells, graptolites and trilobites can all be found. Silurian, Ordovician, Cuttings, Stream, and Disused Quarry, Rating: ♦♦♦
Upper Millichope
This is a stream section, which has been cut back into highly fossiliferous Silurian rocks. Plenty of excellent corals can be found, along with brachiopods, bivalves and trilobites. Most of the fossils have been washed out from the rocks and are just lying in the stream. Silurian, Stream, Rating: ♦♦♦
Wenlock Quarry
This quarry is overgrown, but still has lots of fossils. Good exposures of the Wenlock Limestone yield a variety of corals, shells and trilobites. It is quite large, with three main sections. Silurian, Disused Quarry, Rating: ♦♦♦
Hillend
This is a small roadside cutting, which yields brachiopods and trilobites. The fossils here are poorly preserved in soft mud stones and will require treatment quickly, but it is an ideal location to stop off by the road side with a grass lay-by. Silurian, Roadside Cutting, Rating: ♦
Lyme Regis
Lyme Regis is the most commercial fossil town in the UK, with fossil shops, museums, fossil tours and much, much more – there is no other town like it. The famous beach of Lyme Regis yields large numbers of fossils and people flock here by their thousands to try their luck. The town has a number of fossil shops and includes a museum. There are regular guided fossil collecting tours, showing you where to find fossils and providing general information. The town has had a lot of money spend on making it one of the most beautiful towns in Dorset. Even the lamp posts in Lyme Regis are shaped like ammonites! Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
Benacre
The glacial pebble beds at Benacre yield a range of derived fossils including echinoids, sponges, shells and belemnites. At the base of the cliff, the Baventian Clay is several metres thick. Erratics (Cretaceous), Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦
Dunwich
During scouring conditions, mammal remains can be found below beach level and bones can also be found washed up after storms. However, Dunwich hasn’t scoured for many years. Pliocene, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦
Crimplesham
At Crimplesham, Kimmeridge Clay and Oxford Clay are exposed. Within the Oxford Clay are large nodules, which contain ammonites, brachiopods and bivalves. The quarry is slowly being backfilled, so collecting is becoming more limited. Jurassic, Working Quarry, Rating: ♦♦♦
Llantwit Major
Llantwit Major is an excellent place in Wales for Jurassic fossils. The huge cliffs yield a wide range of fossils and unique is the large amount of marine life, for example corals and giant brachiopods and gastropods. Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
Doniford Bay
Doniford Bay yields some superb white ammonites, which can be found in the rocks on the foreshore. There are also a number of well-preserved brachiopods and bivalves. Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
St Audries Bay
St Audries bay is another location along the Somerset Jurassic coastline providing more wave-cut platforms and cliffs in which to find ammonites and shells. Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
Lavernock
A mixture of Jurassic and Triassic rocks can be seen at Lavernock. Whilst the Jurassic rocks yield ammonites and mollusk’s, the Triassic Rhaetian bone bed similar to Aust yields fish and reptile remains. Jurassic, Triassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Gileston
The foreshore at Gileston is full of Jurassic Boulders. Many of these contain shells and ammonites. This is an ideal location for along who likes splitting rocks on the foreshore or families where children can also collect fossils too. Jurassic, Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦
Budleigh Salterton
Budleigh Salterton is famous for its pebble beds, which yield large numbers of shells when individual pebbles are split open. This site is an SSSI and also has a local bylaw making removal of the pebbles illegal. You can split the pebbles which are found along the foreshore, to see the shells, but cannot remove them! Ordovician, Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦
