Ulrome’s eroding clay coast releases a mixture of fossil-bearing glacial erratics, including rocks much older than the Ice Age deposits that contain them. Access is changeable: establish a safe, permitted route before visiting this exposed stretch near Skipsea.
FIND FREQUENCY: ♦♦♦ – Finds depend on exposed shingle and suitable loose blocks; storms can uncover or bury collecting ground.
CHILDREN: ♦ – The eroding cliff-backed collecting shore is unsuitable for young children; choose an accessible resort beach for a family outing.
ACCESS: ♦ – The road reaches the coast, but erosion affects beach access and former steps may not be usable.
TYPE: – Loose fossils and fossil-bearing erratics on the beach, released from Pleistocene glacial deposits.
DIRECTIONS
♦ From the B1242, take the road into Ulrome and follow it through the village towards the coast.
♦ Check the current signs at the road end for parking and beach access, keeping well back from the cliff edge.
♦ Beach steps were reported missing in June 2025. Use only a safe, open access route that you can also use on your return; do not descend the clay cliff or improvised steps.
♦ Visit on a suitable falling tide. Do not continue towards Skipsea if waves or erosion obstruct the return route.
♦ Ref: TA 17528 57185
FOSSIL HUNTING
At Ulrome, the useful collecting ground is the loose stone left when waves wash the fine sediment out of the glacial clay. Look for exposed shingle patches and isolated fossil-bearing blocks on the accessible beach, rather than following a supposed ammonite layer in the cliff. The original locality observations describe lower cliffs to the north and more obstructed ground towards Skipsea; neither direction guarantees better finds on a particular day. Work the stones that can be reached without approaching the cliff foot or crossing soft slips. Sand can bury a promising patch between visits.
Read the outside of the stone first. Ulrome’s recorded ammonites include examples visible as worn coils on the exterior of blocks. Turn a small loose stone gently and check each exposed surface for an arc of regular ribs or several coils on the same plane. The interior may preserve more detail, but an ammonite outline does not guarantee a complete specimen, and a nodule need not split along the shell. A rounded, battered exterior can also conceal a fragile fossil: retain promising pieces for controlled preparation rather than trying to expose every inner whorl on the beach.
Shells and belemnites. Molluscan remains are prominent in the original Ulrome account. In shelly limestone or darker sedimentary stones, distinguish the growth lines around a bivalve’s margin from an ammonite’s repeated ribs and spiral whorls. Broken shell edges can reveal a fossil-rich piece even when no complete shell is exposed. Belemnites are another recorded group. Their durable guards are straight and tapering, commonly recognisable from a bullet-like outline; broken examples can show radiating calcite fibres or a socket at the broader end. They are parts of squid-like animals, not teeth. The matrix and the surviving shape are more reliable starting points than colour alone.
Corals and echinoids add to the documented variety. Inspect limestone surfaces for repeated coral cups or radial partitions, and look on possible echinoids for a regular plated surface and bands of tiny pores rather than accepting any rounded stone as a sea urchin. The mixed Carboniferous, Jurassic and Cretaceous source rocks explain why these very different fossils can be found together. A beach position does not place them in a shared ancient habitat or give them the age of the much younger glacial clay.
Ammonites, belemnites and shell-bearing stones are sensible search targets; the historical mention of reptile remains should be treated as an exceptional possibility, not an expected find. Keep possible bone unprepared, photograph it and any associated pieces, and ask a museum or specialist for advice. Record the exact location and the enclosing rock for all interesting finds. For a worn specimen, a label describing the fossil group and matrix is more useful than an unsupported species name.
Significant geological research and coastal-change milestones at Ulrome.
2025 – Ulrome’s changing beach levels documented
A comparison of coastal surveys from 1994–1998 and 2010–2020 identified the formation and disappearance of low beach features at Ulrome. These “ords” expose the till shore platform and help explain the shifting pattern of cliff erosion and beach access.
GEOLOGY
Ulrome’s fossils have usually made more than one journey. First they were preserved in much older marine rocks, including Carboniferous limestone, Jurassic sedimentary rocks and Cretaceous material. During the late Devensian glaciation, ice transported and incorporated pieces of those rocks into the stony clay now forming the coast. Finally, waves eroded the clay and redistributed the stones on the modern beach. A fossil’s biological age, the age of its enclosing glacial deposit and the date it reached the shingle are therefore three different things.
The main glacial deposit is the Skipsea Till Member of the Holderness Formation. Its mixture of fine sediment and scattered stones is called diamicton: unlike a well-sorted beach sand, it contains particles of very different sizes together. This explains both the mixed fossil sources and the patchy collecting. A pocket of fossiliferous limestone blocks is not an exposed Carboniferous bed, and a Jurassic ammonite in the clay does not demonstrate a Jurassic cliff beneath it. The underlying Flamborough Chalk is concealed by the superficial deposits; loose Chalk pieces do not prove a local bedrock exposure.
There is also water-laid sediment in the local landscape. Mapping of Ulrome parish records fluvioglacial sand and gravel near the coast at Barmston Main Drain, with younger alluvium along the drainage line. The sand and gravel record sorting by flowing meltwater, in contrast to the mixed till. Their mapped occurrence towards the northern parish boundary should not be extended into a continuous layer beneath every part of Ulrome beach, and no numbered local bed succession is implied.
The present-day pattern is particularly changeable because low beach sections, known as ords, can develop, move and disappear. Coastal-survey research records this behaviour at Ulrome. Where beach sediment is depleted, the till shore platform and cliff toe become more exposed to wave action; where sand accumulates, stones and lower exposures may vanish from view. These modern changes control what can be searched and whether a route remains passable. They are not changes in the age of the fossils, nor a guarantee that each tide delivers new specimens.
Detailed geology and stratigraphy
The following framework distinguishes the glacial deposits from their older fossil-bearing stones. Exposures change as the cliff retreats; this is not a measured vertical log.
CALEDONIA GLACIGENIC GROUP
NORTH SEA COAST GLACIGENIC SUBGROUP
Holderness Formation
This formation contains the late Devensian glacigenic deposits of Holderness, including till and associated water-laid sediments. Its regional total thickness is not a measurement of the cliff at Ulrome.
Skipsea Till Member
The principal lower till is a stony diamicton with a fine-grained matrix and abundant transported clasts, including Chalk. Older descriptions call it Drab Till. The BGS assigns the member to the Dimlington Stadial of the late Devensian, within Marine Isotope Stage 2. Its formation by ice explains why fossils from several older systems can occur together.
Internal sediment bands and transported blocks
Till can contain streaks, sheared lenses and pockets of sandier or more clay-rich material. These are not automatically separate formations or consecutive fossil beds. Record a find’s immediate matrix and setting rather than assigning an original Jurassic bed from its beach position.
Local meltwater sand and gravel
Mapping of the Ulrome parish coast records fluvioglacial sand and gravel near Barmston Main Drain, with alluvium along the drainage line. These are geographically limited components of the local framework, not a measured succession at the former Ulrome beach steps. No secure formal member or named bed is assigned to them here.
Concealed Chalk and reworked fossils
Cretaceous Chalk underlies the Quaternary cover, but the collecting beach does not provide a continuously exposed bedrock section. Carboniferous limestone fossils, Jurassic shells and Chalk fossils in the till are transported material, not evidence for a complete local sequence of those rocks.
Modern beach and erosion surface
Present-day waves winnow clay and redistribute sand, shingle and erratic stones. Exposed till platforms, low beach stretches and stranded blocks are features of modern erosion and deposition, not additional ancient fossil beds.
References
BGS Lexicon: Holderness Formation
BGS Lexicon: Skipsea Till Member
BGS: Eastern England from the Tees to The Wash
Rapid Coastal Zone Assessment: Ulrome parish geology
SAFETY
Visit only in settled weather with an appropriate falling tide, after checking tide times and the state of the return route. Waves can reach the cliff foot and sea defences before the predicted high tide, especially with onshore winds. Leave well before the route narrows.
Keep away from both the edge and foot of the clay cliffs. Fresh slips and apparently firm mud can be unstable or deeply soft. Do not cross debris, undercut ground or broken defences to reach more stones.
At Ulrome, an old access description is not evidence that steps or a safe exit survive. Turn back if the route is uncertain.
Carry a charged phone, tell someone your route and return time, and call 999 or 112 and ask for the Coastguard in an emergency.
EQUIPMENT
Wear sturdy boots with good grip and carry tide information, a phone, a hand lens, a small ruler and a camera. Bring padded bags or rigid boxes and labels for finds.
A hammer is not essential for beach searching. Do not dig the cliffs or prise material from defences. Any permitted work on a loose block needs eye protection, a safe distance from others and restraint; leave very large or potentially important specimens for specialist assessment.
CLEANING AND TREATING
Keep a note of the exact beach location and whether a find was loose, embedded in a transported block or associated with a particular exposure. Wrap fragile fossils separately and keep both halves of a split fossil-bearing stone.
Allow damp specimens to dry slowly, then try a soft brush before further preparation. A brief fresh-water rinse is suitable only for robust, water-stable material; clay-rich shale, porous fossils and crumbly shells may disintegrate when soaked. Do not use household acids, bleach or routine varnish.
Hard limestone and ironstone need patient mechanical preparation under magnification. Stop if the fossil breaks with the matrix. Keep any unusual bone or articulated specimen unprepared and seek specialist advice.
IDENTIFY YOUR FINDS
Need help identifying a fossil? Share clear photos, where you found it and its size with the community.
FURTHER READING
Deposits: a fossil hunter’s guide to the Yorkshire coast (regional background)
BGS: Holderness Formation
BGS: Skipsea Till Member
2025 study of Holderness beach levels and erosion
East Riding Council: coastal change and monitoring
ACCESS RIGHTS
Use only open public access routes and observe signs, barriers and landowner instructions. The presence of fossils or an eroding cliff does not create a right to enter private land, excavate or collect without the relevant permission.
Use only established, open access and follow local signs. Check with the parish council or landowner if the route is unclear.
It is important to follow our ‘Code of Conduct’ when collecting fossils or visiting any site. Please also read our ‘Terms and Conditions’.
LINKS
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