The news that an eleven-year-old girl, Ruby Reynolds, has found an important fossil proves that anyone can make historical discoveries if they are willing to get out and look. The fossilized bone, found on a beach in Somerset in 2020, was recently identified by Dean Lomax, a palaeontologist from the University of Manchester, as being from a species of giant marine reptile new to science. Ruby, now 15, helped name the prehistoric creature Ichthyotitan severnensis, or: “giant fish lizard of the Severn”. The species could reach a length of 25 meters.
Britain is home to some of the best beaches for fossil hunting. The 96-mile Jurassic Coast of Dorset and Devon, the Isle of Wight (also known as ‘Dinosaur Island’) and the Yorkshire coast are hotspots. Quarries – when accessed safely – are like fossil amphitheatres; their rock layers were pulled back to reveal prehistoric treasures.
Here we’ve unearthed five of the best fossil hunting locations in Britain.
Compton Bay, Isle of Wight
The Isle of Wight is “one of the best locations for finding dinosaur fossils in Britain,” says Prof. Paul Barrett, dinosaur researcher at London’s Natural History Museum. About 130 million years ago, this island was a swamp area where herbivorous dinosaurs foraged.
Twenty fossil dinosaur species have been found, and more are still being discovered. For such a small area (147 square kilometers), the diversity of dinosaurs is the best in Europe. You may also find remains of animals that came later – such as a polled rhino – and flint tools from prehistoric human inhabitants.
The southwest of the island, with the oldest rocks from the Cretaceous period, is the best place for fossil hunting.
Compton Bay, owned by the National Trust, is surrounded by low, grass-covered, multi-coloured cliffs. It is a beautiful sandy beach with parking on the cliff top and access to the beach via steps. An ice cream truck is your only option for food or drinks. At the bottom of the stairs turn left and 300 meters further you will find boulders that are casts of three-toed ornithopod footprints. You may need an expert to point them out.
The National Trust offers hour-long guided fossil walks with a local operator, Wight Coast Fossils, for (£5/£3) – your take-home finds could include fragments of fossilized dinosaur bones or teeth (wightcoastfossils.co.uk ).
Best find? The skeleton of polacanthus, an armored dinosaur found in 1979. You can see it at the Natural History Museum in London.
Crail, Fife
The rocks here date from the Carboniferous period, 335 million years ago. There are fossilized tracks of what appears to be a four-wheel drive on the boulders at the water’s edge. These are the tracks of a huge giant centipede, up to two meters long. Such finds are known to paleontologists as ichnofossils or “trace fossils,” the term used for fossils that are not body remains, but rather traces left by animals. Smaller fossils you may be able to take home are tree bark, roots and coprolite – fossilized (shark) poop. You may need a geologist’s hammer to open pebbles. Wear safety glasses.
Crail Harbor Gallery and Tea room is a characterful café with sea views (01333 451896; crailharbourgallery.co.uk).
UK Association of Fossil Hunters occasionally organize guided fossil walks in Crail and other locations across the UK (ukafh)
Best find? Tough to beat those giant centipede tracks.
Boggle Hole, Yorkshire
A mile walk south of Robin Hood’s Bay on the Cleveland Way footpath descends a ravine to a building just yards from a former smugglers’ cove. This is Boggle Hole Youth Hostel with its cozy Quarterdeck cafe and outdoor seating where you can share your beach finds of Jurassic ammonites from the Asteroceras obtusum kind. Ichnofossils are also visible in a Redcar mudstone platform, including Thalassinoides, the fossilized crustacean burrows, which look like complex railway maps. These are for viewing only; Do not attempt to loosen material from the cliff.
As with all fossil hunting sites, Boggle Hole is best explored after storms, which not only loosen new material from the cliffs but also scour sand away from the shale beds.
YHA Boggle Hole sometimes organizes guided fossil walks (£5 per person) for family groups during school holidays (01629 592700; yha.org.uk). Email bogglehole@yha.org.uk to request this.
Yorkshire Coast Rocks runs fossil safaris at Boggle Hole and elsewhere on the Yorkshire coast. A three to four hour private safari with a scientist costs from £165 for up to six people. You can also join one of their public walks for £24 for adults and £12 for children (07816 278287; www.yorkshirecoast.rocks).
Best find? New dinosaur footprints – stegosaurus, theropods and sauropods – were revealed near Whitby this year.
Lyme Regis, Dorset
With its tilted layers meaning you can walk a million years in a mile, the Jurassic cliffs of Lyme Regis were the birthplace of palaeontology in the 19th century with Mary Anning’s many fossil finds. Britain’s most complete dinosaur, scelidosaurus, was also found here. Gentle, storm-battered cliffs continually dump easy-to-find treasures onto the beach, such as ammonites, belemnites and gryphaea, or “devil’s nails,” a type of extinct oyster species.
Waste from the city’s historic landfill, which was in use from Victorian times until the 1970s, also dumps onto the beach. Surprisingly, finding human waste helps the fossil hunt. Heavy objects such as old pocket knives and nails are washed together by the tides and here too you will find fossils rich in iron pyrite – shiny little ammonite jewels of “fool’s gold”.
Then head into town and uphill to the Alexandra Hotel for an alfresco cream tea overlooking the harbor (01297 442010; hotelalexandra.co.uk).
Lyme Regis Museum runs three-hour fossil hunting walks that cost £14.75 for adults and £8.75 for children (01297 443370; lymeregismuseum.co.uk).
The annual Lyme Regis Fossil Festival takes place on June 8 and 9 with talks, walks, films, boat trips and more (fossilfestival.com).
Best find? There are many contenders, but this year marks 200 years since Mary Anning described the first complete plesiosaur skeleton.
Upper Gilwern Quarry, mid Wales
On private land on the edge of the Brecon Beacons, this former quarry offers guaranteed finds of Ordovician trilobites of the genus Ogyginus (they look like giant beetles), up to 469 million years old. A local extinction event, possibly a volcanic eruption that dumped ash, killed and preserved tens of thousands of these creatures in what was probably a breeding ground in a shallow sea.
Guests staying in the landowners’ accommodation have more or less exclusive access to the quarry (educational groups attend occasionally). There is a shepherd’s hut on the property with far reaching views. Another option are two ‘tree houses’ with seven sleeping places each, a 10-minute drive away. Your party will receive a half day of fossil hunting at the quarry included in your stay.
The Hundred House Inn is a 10-minute drive away and has open fires and reasonably priced food (01982 570 446).
Shepherd’s hut at Upper Gilwern Quarry (07741 068 402; uppergilwernquarryhut.co.uk) and Rhiw Wood Treehouses (07741 068 402; rhiwwoodtreehouses.co.uk).
Best find? Um, that would be a trilobite.
