Overview
Directions
- Head towards Portland from Weymouth along the A354, following signs for Ferry Bridge.
- Just before or as you begin to cross Ferry Bridge, turn into the Chesil Beach Visitor Centre car park (pay-and-display), located on the right-hand side.
- From the car park, walk back towards Ferry Bridge, then cross over to the Wyke Regis side using the pavement.
- Once over the bridge, use lawful footpaths towards the East Fleet, west of Wyke Regis, rather than walking along the lagoon shore. The reserve’s current rules do not permit shore walking; ask its team about permission for any foreshore visit.
- The low cliffs and foreshore expose Kimmeridge Clay, but this geological description is not permission to enter or collect there. Follow current reserve guidance and on-site notices.
- Postcode for Parking: DT4 9XE; Google Maps Link
- What3Words collecting areas; ///slick.reader.dishes
Location photographs
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Video Film
Fossil Hunting
To the west of Wyke Regis, the shoreline of the East Fleet lagoon, behind Chesil Beach, exposes fossiliferous beds of the Kimmeridge Clay Formation. Inspect only firm, open ground where access and collecting are permitted. Do not enter soft mud or search immediately beneath unstable banks.
Large flat oysters, particularly Deltoideum delta, are characteristic of the lower Kimmeridge mudstones. Nanogyra nana is concentrated in the Nana Bed, while the coarsely ribbed bivalve Ctenostreon and serpulid worm tubes are particularly associated with the older Osmington Mills Ironstone. These distinct horizons should not be merged into a single shell bed when recording a loose find.
Ammonites include Pictonia in the lower, Baylei-zone beds and Rasenia in the younger Cymodoce-zone succession. The Wyke Siltstone and higher mudstones preserve different Rasenia assemblages, which made the Fleet section important for correlation. Record any attached matrix and exact finding position; a loose ammonite is not automatically an in-situ marker for the mud beneath it.
Occasional vertebrate remains may be found in the Kimmeridge Clay material, but the rich published marine-reptile assemblage from the low cliffs east of Ferry Bridge belongs to the Smallmouth Sands shore inside Portland Harbour. It should not be transferred to the Fleet-side pillbox as a demonstrated bone bed. Keep the location, matrix and any associated pieces with a find, and seek specialist identification rather than assigning isolated bones or teeth to pliosaurs, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs or crocodilians without diagnostic evidence.
The shore west of the pillbox is a recorded fossil locality, but do not walk along it or collect without the necessary permission. Take only naturally loose material where permitted; do not use tools to extract fossils from clay banks or cliffs.
Fossil photographs
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Discoveries and milestones
Some of the main scientific milestones connected with Wyke Regis, focused on the Fleet shore west of Wyke Regis, with clearly distinguished comparisons to the Smallmouth Sands shore inside Portland Harbour, include the classic work on the Oxfordian–Kimmeridgian boundary beds, the long use of the East Fleet section in studies of the basal Kimmeridgian, and the continued recognition of the area as an important fossil locality for Corallian and Kimmeridge Clay faunas.
1875 – Blake discussed the boundary beds of the Wyke Regis and Fleet coast
J. F. Blake treated the uppermost Corallian and basal Kimmeridge Clay beds of the Wyke Regis coast as distinctive boundary beds, showing that this stretch of shore was already important in nineteenth-century work on the Oxfordian–Kimmeridgian transition.
1877 – Blake and Hudleston further documented the Kimmeridge passage beds of the Wyke Regis coast
Later nineteenth-century work by Blake and Hudleston refined understanding of the beds around Wyke Regis and the Fleet, helping establish the scientific importance of this coast for the uppermost Corallian and lowermost Kimmeridge Clay succession.
1947 – Arkell described the Weymouth district geology and recorded the fossil-rich beds of the Wyke Regis coast
By the mid twentieth century, Arkell’s Geological Survey memoir had helped fix the Wyke Regis and Fleet shore as classic Upper Jurassic coastal sections, with fossil-rich beds yielding oysters, other bivalves, gastropods and ammonites.
1978 – Birkelund and co-workers used the Fleet section in important work on Rasenia faunas
The East Fleet succession was used in important work on the ammonite genus Rasenia and the Lower Kimmeridgian Cymodoce Zone. This showed that the Wyke Regis–Fleet coast was a key section for understanding Upper Jurassic ammonite succession.
1981 – Cox and Gallois refined the basal Kimmeridge Clay succession of the Wyke Regis area
Detailed later twentieth-century work clarified the lithostratigraphy of the beds above the Corallian in the Wyke Regis and Fleet area, helping place the local fossil horizons into a more precise modern framework.
2001 – the Geological Conservation Review published the East Fleet and East Fleet–Small Mouth accounts
The separate accounts describe the Oxfordian Corallian section and the younger boundary sections on the Fleet and Portland Harbour shores. They document the Baylei and Cymodoce zones and the local correlation markers without treating the two shorelines as one exposure. This is the publication date of the accounts, not a newly assigned legal designation date.
Modern collecting – the west side of Wyke Regis remains known for Corallian and Kimmeridge Clay fossils
Today the Chesil Beach and East Fleet shore west of Wyke Regis is still known for large oysters, plentiful bivalves, gastropods and ammonites, with occasional marine reptile bones and teeth also reported from the Kimmeridge Clay. Its importance lies more in the richness of the fossil horizons and the boundary succession than in a long list of famous single named finds.
Geology
Wyke Regis (West) exposes Upper Jurassic rocks along the Fleet shore. Two separate sections are important: the Corallian Group at East Fleet and the younger basal Kimmeridge Clay Formation north-west of Ferry Bridge. They should not be read as one continuously exposed cliff sequence.
The East Fleet Corallian section contains the Osmington Oolite Formation and the lower part of the Clavellata Formation. Sandy and muddy beds alternate with oolitic and fossiliferous limestones. The succession records changing conditions on a shallow marine shelf, with appreciable sand and mud input.
Near Ferry Bridge, the uppermost Corallian mudstones and ironshot oolite are followed by the lower Kimmeridge Clay. Mudstones of the Baylei and Cymodoce ammonite zones contain thin shelly siltstones, including the Wyke Siltstone and Black Head Siltstone. The Inconstans Bed marks the local base of the formation.
Exposures are low, gently dipping and often weathered, slipped or obscured. This chart keeps the Fleet-side sections separate from the Smallmouth Sands shore inside Portland Harbour; measurements or fossil records from that harbour-side section should not automatically be transferred here.
Detailed geology and bed-by-bed succession
This is a composite stratigraphic breakdown of the Wyke Regis west locality, covering the East Fleet shore and the Fleet-side low cliffs north-west of Ferry Bridge, where separate low-cliff and foreshore sections expose upper Corallian beds and the basal Oxfordian–Kimmeridgian boundary succession. The site is important because it preserves the westward marginal facies of the Osmington Oolite–Clavellata succession and one of the thickest Fleet-side Dorset sections through the Baylei and Cymodoce zones at the base of the Kimmeridge Clay.
The East Fleet Bed 1–13 descriptions below refer to the same published reference section used in the Pirates Cove account. They are not transferred to the separate Ferry Bridge boundary section. Individual graphical lithologies follow Wright’s GCR Figure 2.24, while the prose groups Beds 5–7 as quartz sands and clays; this source distinction is retained explicitly.
Section Architecture
This is not a single continuous cliff log. The west Wyke Regis locality is best treated as two linked Fleet-side sections: first, the East Fleet Corallian reference section about 1 km west of Wyke Regis, where a gently dipping 14 m succession is exposed in foreshore and low cliff; and second, the low, slumped and weathered cliffs north-west of Ferry Bridge at the eastern end of The Fleet, where the uppermost Oxfordian and basal Kimmeridgian boundary beds are exposed patchily in low cliffs and on the foreshore. Modern protection from marine erosion by Chesil Beach and, farther east, Portland Harbour works has degraded many of the old exposures, so the locality must be handled honestly as a composite one.
Numbering Note
The WR numbers below are site-use numbers. Formal published bed numbers are retained exactly where they exist, especially Wright’s East Fleet Beds 1–13 and the classic named boundary beds of the basal Kimmeridge Clay. No attempt is made to invent a false single continuous numbered log across concealed or slipped ground between East Fleet and Ferry Bridge.
CORALLIAN GROUP
Osmington Oolite Formation (Oxfordian)
Upton Member
Bed WR1 — Wright Beds 1–3, Burrowed Sandy Siltstones Of The Upton Member
The lowest exposed beds at East Fleet are highly bioturbated sandy siltstones and sandy mudstones forming the basal part of the 14 m Corallian section. Their most distinctive feature is the unusually well-preserved trace fossil Teichichnus, which is especially well shown here and makes East Fleet the key district locality for this facies. Macrofossils are comparatively subdued when compared with the shell-rich beds higher up, but the sedimentological message is clear: these beds represent shallow offshore shelf deposition with substantial clastic input, a more marginal and shallower-water development than the more open-marine equivalent seen farther east near Osmington.
Wright Bed 1 — Basal Exposed Upton Interval
The lowest numbered unit in the East Fleet log belongs to the bioturbated sandy succession and includes concretionary development. Its separate bed identity is retained without estimating a thickness from the drawn scale.
Wright Bed 2 — Middle Upton Interval
The middle numbered Upton package includes sandy sediment and harder carbonate-rich bands or concretions shown in the source log. Together with Beds 1 and 3 it forms the clastic-rich, burrowed member described in the GCR.
Wright Bed 3 — Upper Upton Interval
The highest Upton unit completes the bioturbated clastic package below the break into Shortlake oolite. The named Teichichnus trace-fossil occurrence belongs to Beds 1–3 as a source-defined interval; it is not claimed to occur on every bedding surface.
Shortlake Member
Bed WR2 — Wright Bed 4, Lower Oolitic Shoal Bed
The lower Shortlake Member is dominated by oolite, here partly cross-bedded, and forms the first clearly higher-energy carbonate unit above the clastic Upton beds. The cross-bedding and ooidal texture indicate tidal or storm-reworked ooid shoals and small deltas, while the bed’s place within a strongly facies-variable westward Corallian tract suggests repeated migration of mobile carbonate sand bodies across a shallow marine shelf.
Bed WR3 — Wright Beds 5–7, Quartz Sands And Clays Of The Middle Shortlake Member
Quartz sand and clay succeed the lower oolite and form a mixed clastic interval in the middle Shortlake Member, with Bed 7 only about 0.9 m thick. These beds show that the ooid shoal phase was interrupted by renewed influx of fine quartz sand and mud. The alternation of sandier and muddier lithologies suggests repeated switching between current-swept shallow-water conditions and quieter lagoonal or shelf-floor accumulation, rather than a uniform carbonate platform setting.
Wright Bed 5 — Clay With An Oolitic-Clay Top
The GCR figure’s lithology key depicts clay with a thin oolitic-clay component at the top of Bed 5. Its prose collectively calls Beds 5–7 the quartz-sand and clay interval. Both source descriptions are retained rather than flattening the graphic detail; no individual thickness is inferred from the scale.
Wright Bed 6 — Oolite In The Intervening Package
The source figure portrays Bed 6 with the oolite symbol, within the broader interval described in the text as quartz sand and clay. This distinct carbonate bed is retained separately from the clays below and above; no unprinted measurement is assigned.
Wright Bed 7 — Upper Clay-Rich Interval (0.9 m)
The GCR figure explicitly corrects the original 1986 misprint: Bed 7 is 0.9 m, not 3.5 m. This is a directly printed correction and is not a value measured from the graphic.
Bed WR4 — Wright Beds 8–10, Fossiliferous Oomicrites Of The Upper Shortlake Member
Three beds of very fossiliferous oomicrite occur at the base of the low cliff and are among the most useful collector and palaeoecological horizons in the East Fleet Corallian section. Recorded fossils include the bivalves Myophorella, Plicatula, Lucina, Chlamys, Opis, Nanogyra nana and Ostrea, the gastropods Nerinea, Bourguetia, Pseudomelania, Ampullina, Dicroloma, Littorina and Procerithium, and the echinoid Nucleolites scutatus. These shelly micritic beds indicate an increasingly lagoonal and carbonate-mud-rich upper Shortlake setting, still marine but quieter than the ooid shoals below and rich in benthic life.
Wright Bed 8 — Lower Fossiliferous Oomicrite
The lowest of the three separately logged shelly oomicrites begins the distinctive fossil-rich interval. The source figure shows molluscan material; the published assemblage is attributed to Beds 8–10 collectively rather than assigning every listed species to this one bed.
Wright Bed 9 — Middle Fossiliferous Oomicrite
The middle oomicrite is separately numbered in the measured log, whose graphic highlights echinoid remains at this level. It remains distinct from the lower and upper shelly beds; no unsupported local thickness is assigned.
Wright Bed 10 — Upper Fossiliferous Oomicrite
The upper shelly oomicrite completes the Shortlake package below the Nodular Rubble. It is part of the same unusually fossiliferous local facies, rather than a regional Osmington bed imported into East Fleet.
Nodular Rubble Member
Bed WR5 — Wright Bed 11, Nodular Rubble
The Nodular Rubble is exposed about 100 m to the south-east as three prominent concretionary limestone beds with nodules larger than those seen in equivalent strata at Osmington. These irregular nodular limestones form hummocky, resistant reefs and record a phase of early cementation and diagenetic concentration within otherwise shallow-marine carbonate sediment. The top of the unit is erosional and heavily burrowed, and it forms the substrate on which the lower Clavellata sands were later laid down.
Clavellata Formation (Upper Oxfordian)
Bed WR6 — Sandy Block Subdivision And Wright Bed 12
At East Fleet only the lower part of the Clavellata Formation is exposed, and the lower subdivision is the Sandy Block. A thin bed of fine quartz sand, about 0.07–0.14 m thick, wraps around the eroded hummocks of the Nodular Rubble, and sand-filled borings descend from above into the underlying limestones. This is followed by soft argillaceous sand and then by about 1.2 m of flaggy fine-grained sandstone, best seen near the centre of the bay. The basal quartz sand resting directly on the eroded carbonate surface is clear evidence of a non-sequential break and renewed clastic influx. These beds are markedly more marginal than the equivalent horizons at Osmington and represent shallow-water sandy marine conditions encroaching across an eroded carbonate bench.
Basal Clavellata Veneer — 0.07–0.14 m
The published East Fleet account separates the very thin quartz-sand covering of the eroded Nodular Rubble from the overlying sands. Sand-filled borings descend into the older limestone.
Soft Argillaceous Sand
Soft clay-bearing sand succeeds the basal veneer in the East Fleet description. No independent thickness is assigned to this interval in the cited account.
Wright Bed 12 — Flaggy Sandstone (1.2 m)
The separately measured fine sandstone forms the higher Sandy Block interval in the centre of the bay. It is distinguished from both the basal veneer and the intervening soft sand.
Bed WR7 — Chief Shells Beds Subdivision And Wright Bed 13 (0.55 m)
The overlying Chief Shells Beds are represented at East Fleet by about 0.55 m of flaggy, immature, sandy oolite containing Myophorella clavellata and Nanogyra nana. Though thin, this bed is very important because it captures the classic clavellata fauna in a distinctly sandy, marginal westward facies. The reduction in quartz sand upward from the Sandy Block is noticeable, but the bed still belongs to a clastic-influenced shallow shelf or marginal-lagoon setting rather than to a fully open carbonate shelf.
Covered Interval Note
On the Fleet side, the passage from the lower Clavellata Formation at East Fleet into the highest Oxfordian boundary beds near Ferry Bridge is not continuously exposed. Much of the upper Clavellata Formation and much or all of the intervening Sandsfoot Grit Member are concealed, slipped or inaccessible on this side of Chesil, so the page deliberately uses a composite Fleet-side section rather than inventing missing beds.
Sandsfoot Formation (Upper Oxfordian; Partial Fleet-Side Exposure Only)
Ringstead Clay Member
Bed WR8 — Upper Ringstead Clay Member
At the eastern end of The Fleet, the low cliffs north-west of Ferry Bridge expose the highest part of the Ringstead Clay Member beneath the basal Kimmeridge section. Lithologically these beds are pale- to dark-grey variably calcareous mudstones, locally with fine calcareous laminae, passing upward into reddish silty mudstone with siltstone lenses and the characteristic red-weathering lens-shaped sideritic concretions of the member. Fossils are comparatively sparse, with bivalves, echinoids and rare ammonites recorded regionally. The beds dip gently and steadily south, are badly slumped, and are often best understood from their relative position on the foreshore rather than from any one clean cliff face.
Osmington Mills Ironstone Member
Bed WR9 — Osmington Mills Ironstone Member / Highest Oxfordian Ironshot Oolite
The youngest Oxfordian stratum in the Fleet-side Wyke Regis section is the pale ironshot oolite traditionally miscalled the “Ringstead Coral Bed”. At Wyke Regis it is a thin ferruginous ooidal bed full of fossils, notably serpulids and the coarsely corrugated bivalve Ctenostreon, but without true corals. This is a condensed hiatal surface bed formed at the top of the Sandsfoot Formation and represents the last Oxfordian marine condensation before the abrupt incoming of the basal Kimmeridge muds above.
ANCHOLME GROUP
Kimmeridge Clay Formation (Lower Kimmeridgian: Baylei And Cymodoce Zones)
Bed WR10 — Inconstans Bed
The Inconstans Bed marks the base of the Kimmeridge Clay Formation and the traditional local Oxfordian–Kimmeridgian boundary used in the cited Dorset account. It is a very dark grey shelly and bioturbated mudstone with ferruginous ooids and phosphatic pebbles, resting sharply and non-sequentially on the Oxfordian ironstone below. The eponymous brachiopod Torquirhynchia inconstans characterizes the bed. This is the critical datum for the whole Wyke Regis west boundary succession and records abrupt deepening from the condensed Oxfordian ironstone into darker basal Kimmeridge mud deposition.
Bed WR11 — Nana Bed
A thin but very distinctive bed rich in the small oyster Nanogyra nana. This is one of the classic named beds of the basal Kimmeridge in the Weymouth district and lies low in the Pictonia baylei Zone. The concentration of small oysters indicates a short-lived shelly event within otherwise muddy sedimentation, and the bed remains a practical field marker wherever the Fleet-side section is clean enough to be traced.
Bed WR12 — Lower Baylei-Zone Dark Grey Mudstones With Deltoideum delta
Dark grey mudstones above the Nana Bed are rich in the flat oyster Deltoideum delta. These beds represent the lower part of the Pictonia baylei Zone and are more argillaceous and darker than the pale mudstones above. They indicate a low-energy offshore muddy shelf with a reduced but characteristic benthic fauna dominated by oysters and scattered molluscs.
Bed WR13 — Upper Baylei-Zone Pale Grey Mudstones With Red-Weathering Tabular Clay Ironstones
This is the thickest single visible package in the Fleet-side basal Kimmeridge section. Pale grey mudstones with thin red-weathering tabular clay ironstones overlie the darker Deltoideum-rich beds and still belong to the Pictonia baylei Zone. Pictonia is reported from beds below the Wyke Siltstone, and these pale muds represent a relatively expanded Baylei-Zone interval when compared with several other Dorset coastal sections. The thin tabular clay ironstones provide a useful practical marker where shell faunas are sparse.
Bed WR14 — Wyke Siltstone (Up To c. 1.0 m; KC5; Base Of The Cymodoce-Zone Succession In Dorset Practice)
The Wyke Siltstone is the most prominent single bed in the Fleet-side basal Kimmeridge succession. It is a thin siltstone crowded with myid and other bivalves and has yielded at least 17 bivalve species as well as gastropods and occasional ammonites. Ammonites from this horizon include the oldest Fleet-side Rasenia fauna recognized by Birkelund and co-workers, including microconchs referred to Rasenia cf. triplicata and macroconchs close to R. cymodoce. The base of the bed correlates with KC5 of the Dorset Kimmeridge scheme and has long been treated in practical Dorset correlation as the base of the Rasenia cymodoce Zone.
This is the published Dorset correlation convention. The GCR notes that Birkelund and colleagues deferred a formal zonal-base definition pending fuller comparison of the different Rasenia horizons.
Bed WR15 — Higher Cymodoce-Zone Shales With Deltoideum delta
Above the Wyke Siltstone, the section returns to mudstone and shale, again with Deltoideum delta present. These higher shales yielded the next younger Fleet-side Rasenia horizon recognized by Birkelund and colleagues, characterized by microconchs referred to Rasenia cf. and aff. involuta and macroconchs assigned to Eurasenia. The beds record continuation of offshore muddy deposition after the shelly siltstone event of the Wyke Siltstone, but with ammonite faunas now clearly within the Cymodoce-Zone succession.
Bed WR16 — Black Head Siltstone (KC8)
A second thin siltstone bed of similar lithology occurs 1–2 m above the Wyke Siltstone and is known as the Black Head Siltstone. Though thinner and less visually dominant than the Wyke Siltstone, it is an important correlation bed and represents a higher Cymodoce-Zone shelly event, correlating with KC8. Younger Fleet-side Cymodoce-zone clays near the southern end of the exposure have yielded the highest Rasenia horizon recognized here, including Rasenioides lepidula and Semirasenia askepta, but those beds are patchy and slumped and should not be forced into a spurious separate clean bed in this Fleet-side page.
Southern Fleet Clays — Youngest Recognised Rasenia Horizon
Birkelund’s fourth and youngest horizon was recorded in the clays at the southern end of the Fleet exposure, with Rasenioides lepidula and Semirasenia askepta as reported in the GCR. Their third horizon was not identified in this exposure. These are separate palaeontological observations in patchy clays, without an invented continuous measured bed or thickness.
Scope Limit Note
Higher lower Kimmeridge mudstones of the mutabilis Zone are historically better known from the harbour-side cliffs between Sandsfoot and Small Mouth, not from the Fleet-side Wyke Regis west locality defined here. They are therefore not forced into this page, which is restricted to the East Fleet and Ferry Bridge / eastern Fleet shoreline exposures along Chesil Beach and The Fleet.
Depositional Environment
The Wyke Regis west succession records a marked westward transition from shallow Oxfordian carbonate-shelf facies into the deeper muddy regime of the basal Kimmeridge. The Upton Member represents clastic-rich offshore shelf sedimentation; the Shortlake Member records ooid shoals, sandy episodes and increasingly lagoonal shelly micrites; the Nodular Rubble represents early cemented carbonate benches later eroded at the top; and the lower Clavellata Formation records renewed quartz-sand influx and marginal sandy oolite deposition on an eroded shelf surface. The highest Oxfordian boundary beds near Ferry Bridge pass from calcareous mudstone of the Ringstead Clay into the condensed hiatal Osmington Mills Ironstone. Above the Oxfordian–Kimmeridgian boundary, the Inconstans Bed and overlying Baylei- and Cymodoce-zone mudstones show establishment of a quieter offshore muddy shelf in which oysters, ammonites and thin shelly siltstones alternate with thicker mudstone packages. The Fleet-side basal Kimmeridge is notably expanded, which is why it became one of the key Dorset sections for lower Kimmeridgian ammonite correlation.
Total Thickness Note
The East Fleet reference section exposes about 14 m of Corallian strata, including about 12 m of the Osmington Oolite Formation. The younger boundary succession north-west of Ferry Bridge is a separate, partly slumped section. No combined measured thickness is assigned to the two sections, and the harbour-side Smallmouth total is not transferred to this Fleet-side locality.
References
British Geological Survey Lexicon of Named Rock Units: Corallian Group, Osmington Oolite Formation, Clavellata Formation, Sandsfoot Formation, Ringstead Clay Member and Kimmeridge Clay Formation.
Wright, J.K. (1986). A new look at the stratigraphy, sedimentology and ammonite fauna of the Corallian Group (Oxfordian) of south Dorset.
Cox, B.M. & Gallois, R.W. (1981). The stratigraphy of the Kimmeridge Clay of the Dorset type area and its correlation with some other Kimmeridgian sequences.
Cox, B.M. & Sumbler, M.G. (1994). The Oxfordian–Kimmeridgian boundary beds in southern England.
Wright, J.K. & Cox, B.M. (2001). Geological Conservation Review site accounts for East Fleet, East Fleet–Small Mouth and Sandsfoot in British Upper Jurassic Stratigraphy (Oxfordian to Kimmeridgian).
Arkell, W.J. (1947). Geology of the Country around Weymouth, Swanage, Corfe and Lulworth.
Birkelund, T., Thusu, B. & Vigran, J. (1978). Jurassic–Cretaceous biostratigraphy of Norway, with comments on the British Rasenia cymodoce Zone.
Williams, M.E. (2003). The development of hiatal surfaces in the Osmington Mills Ironstone Member of south Dorset.
GCR East Fleet: exact thirteen-bed reference section and Figure 2.24. GCR East Fleet–Small Mouth: distinct Fleet and harbour sections, named markers and ammonite horizons.
Safety
Common sense should always be used when collecting, and checking tide times is essential, as parts of the shoreline can become cut off as the tide rises.
The East Fleet shore includes deep, unstable mud and hidden tidal channels. Do not enter soft mud or squeeze along unstable bank and cliff edges to get around it. Keep to firm ground with a clear return route and turn back if that route is blocked. If someone becomes trapped, call 999 and ask for the Coastguard; do not enter the mud to attempt a rescue.
The ground can also be uneven and slippery in places, particularly after rain, so sturdy footwear is strongly recommended.
Always plan your visit around a falling tide and allow plenty of time to return safely.
Equipment
Fossil collecting at Wyke Regis (West) generally requires minimal tools, as most fossils can be found loose along the shoreline or weathering out from soft Kimmeridge Clay.
The reserve does not permit fossil extraction from its soft cliffs and banks. Do not use a screwdriver, pick or chisel to free fossils from them. Small quantities of naturally loose fossils may be permitted in some places; check the reserve’s current guidance or ask its team before collecting.
It is recommended to bring tissue, specimen bags or small containers, as shells and bone fragments can be fragile and easily damaged.
Wear suitable footwear for wet, uneven ground, but do not enter soft mud: waterproof boots or wellingtons do not make it safe. A bag or backpack will help carry finds comfortably along the shoreline.
Cleaning And Treating
Support shells and their matrix, then remove only loose sediment with a very soft brush. Do not give every specimen a fixed 24-hour soak: water may weaken clay-rich matrix or damage unstable pyritic material. Salt removal needs a specimen-specific plan. Avoid heat and rapid drying, keep unstable sulphide-bearing finds in suitable dry storage, and seek preparation advice for important or crumbling specimens.
Paraloid B-72 may help selected fragile areas after testing, but sound fossils do not automatically need coating. It is not a waterproof seal, and complete removal from porous fossils or matrix cannot be guaranteed. Keep specimens supported in stable storage and record any treatment; important finds should be assessed before adhesive or consolidant is applied.
Identify Your Finds
Need help identifying a fossil? Share clear photos, where you found it and its size with the community.
Further Reading
Deposits Magazine – Book review: A Guide to Fossil Collecting on the South Dorset Coast
East Fleet–Small Mouth – Geological Conservation Review
East Fleet – Geological Conservation Review
Geology of the Fleet Lagoon – Ian West’s field guide
Fossils along the Fleet Lagoon – Alan Holiday
Access Rights
This site is an SSSI and forms part of the UNESCO World Heritage Jurassic Coast. SSSI status does not grant access. The reserve directs walkers to surrounding footpaths and does not permit walking along Fleet shores. Ask the reserve about permission for shore entry and any small-scale loose collecting. Hammering the bedrock is not permitted. For full information about the reasons for the status of the site and restrictions please download the PDF from Natural England – SSSI Information – Chesil and the Fleet
It is important to follow our ‘Code of Conduct’ when collecting fossils or visiting any site. Please also read our ‘Terms and Conditions‘
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