Watchet is a highly productive Jurassic location, well known for its reptile remains and abundant ammonites. The foreshore also reveals impressive geological features, including spectacular faulting and large ammonite casts, making it both scientifically important and visually striking. With regular fresh material exposed by erosion, it is a must-visit site for fossil collectors exploring this part of the Somerset coast.Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
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Helwell Bay at Doniford is one of the best locations in Somerset for collecting iridescent ammonites, a highlight of the Blue Lias. The extensive foreshore also yields small white ammonites, reptile bones and a variety of bivalves, often exposed after erosion, making it a highly rewarding site for collectors. Classic Helwell Bay finds include the early Jurassic ammonites Psiloceras planorbis and Caloceras johnstoniJurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
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Blue Anchor exposes a thin but highly productive Rhaetian bone bed within the Penarth Group, yielding abundant reptile, shark and fish remains, similar to the famous Aust site on the Severn Estuary. The foreshore is scattered with blocks ideal for splitting, while the overlying Jurassic beds also produce ammonites and occasional reptile material, making this a varied and rewarding location.Triassic, Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
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Quantoxhead is a quiet and expansive stretch of the Somerset coast, where tall Jurassic cliffs and a wide wave-cut platform provide excellent fossil exposure. The foreshore regularly yields ammonites and occasional reptile remains, often after erosion, while the long rocky platform also features numerous rock pools, making it both a productive and scenic location to explore. Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
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Kilve’s limestone reefs and dark Jurassic shale reveal ammonites, changing seafloor conditions and remarkable ancient methane-seep structures. The shore east of Kilve Pill is the main route described here, with loose fossil material and exposed pavements to examine carefully on a falling tide while protecting the cliffs and embedded finds. Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
Hinkley Point is a productive coastal site where fish and reptile remains, including ichthyosaur vertebrae, are commonly found loose along the foreshore. The beach also yields ammonites and marine shells, often exposed after erosion, making it a rewarding location for collectors searching for vertebrate material.Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
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St Audries Bay is a quieter stretch of the Somerset Jurassic Coast, where Blue Lias cliffs and wave-cut platforms expose fossil-bearing beds. The foreshore can yield ammonites, reptile remains and marine shells, particularly after erosion, and although less productive than nearby sites, its lower footfall makes it an appealing location for collectors seeking a more peaceful experience.Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
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Lilstock is a productive coastal site where reptile remains and loose bones can often be found along the foreshore, alongside Jurassic ammonites, bivalves and fish remains. At the eastern end of the bay, the Triassic Lilstock Formation yields blocks rich in fish, shark and reptile material, as well as microfossils from the sandstones, offering a varied collecting experience across two geological periods. Triassic, Jurassic, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
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The ploughed fields around Kingstone and Moolham can reveal ammonites weathered from Lower Jurassic limestone. Dactylioceras, Harpoceras and Hildoceras are recorded in the local collecting account, but visibility depends on cultivation and crop cover, and landowner permission is needed before collecting from these working fields. Jurassic, Fields, Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Clevedon Beach, beside its famous Victorian pier, exposes a remarkable sequence of rocks from the late Devonian to the Triassic. The main fossil-bearing strata are the Early Carboniferous limestones and shales south of the Pier, where collectors can see crinoid stems and ossicles, brachiopods, corals, trace fossils, fish remains and occasional straight-shelled cephalopods. One important local fossil is the coral Vaughania vetus, recorded from the Avon Group on the Clevedon foreshore.Carboniferous, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
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Portishead offers two contrasting fossil-hunting areas on the Severn Estuary. At Portishead Point, also known as Battery Point, Early Carboniferous marine limestones contain corals, crinoids and brachiopods. South-west along Woodhill Bay, the Late Devonian Portishead Subgroup includes the historic Woodhill Bay Fish Bed, with scales, teeth and pieces of armoured fish. Fish remains are rare, but regularly found. Tilted beds, river deposits and an ancient unconformity make this a rewarding geological coast, but powerful tides, soft mud and protected exposures require careful planning.Carboniferous, Devonian, Cliffs and Foreshore, Rating: ♦♦♦
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Writhlington’s conserved colliery-spoil rock store preserves a remarkable late Carboniferous wetland community. Plant impressions and rare terrestrial arthropods have made it internationally important, but this finite scientific resource is visited through controlled arrangements: obtain permission and current joining instructions before travelling. Carboniferous, Spoil, Rating: ♦♦♦♦
Chilcompton’s old New Rock colliery spoil contains shale and sandstone brought up from deep Carboniferous workings. Plant stems and fern-like impressions can be seen in suitable loose shale, but the steep, overgrown public-path route is primarily a place for careful observation unless the landowner has agreed to collecting. Carboniferous, Spoil, Rating: ♦♦♦
Brown’s Folly’s old Bath Stone quarries reveal a varied Middle Jurassic seafloor, from mobile ooid sands to coral growth and shell-rich mud. Corals, brachiopods, bivalves and crinoids make this wooded Avon Wildlife Trust reserve rewarding for a careful geological walk, with fossils and quarry features best studied without disturbing the protected exposures. Jurassic, Disused Quarry, Rating: ♦♦
