Burton Bradstock fossils and fossil collecting

Locations similar to Burton

For locations which also have Inferior Oolite or Bridport Sands of which fossil collecting is permitted, try 'West Bay', next to Burton Bradstock, 'Ketton Quary' in Lincolnshire, or in Gloucestershire you could visit, 'Gilberts Grave' On the Isle of Skye, Bearreraig Bay also has Inferior Oolite.

If you have parked at Burton Bradstock itself, you should descend at Burton Bradstock mouth, here the Burton Bradstock nodule bed is raised above sea level and can normally be seen. Walking west at Thorncombe Beacon, the Burton Bradstock Nodule bed can be seen in the cliff.

You need to look out for blocks of 'Dorset Junction Bed', for information on what these look like and how to spot them, look at our 'What to Find' page. Search the rocks around the foreshore, look out for the layered colours unique to the Junction Bed and smash these open with a heavy lump hammer, then fine split using normal splitting hammers. The are usually packed full of Ammonites, shells and many other finds.

Keep an eye on the surface of weathered rocks, most of the starfish are found simply in rocks around the foreshore. Please think twice before trying to get these out, you will need the right tools and recommended is cutting equipment. Attempts to try and get these out by hammers will often result in destroying the fossils....[more]

Burton Cliff is similar to East Cliff at West Bay but in its middle part the Bridport Sands are succeeded by the full thickness (3.7m) of Upper, Middle and Lower Inferior Oolite and a little of the Fuller's Earth. The Inferior Oolite is not safely accessible in the cliff, but large fallen blocks are present on shore, in these almost the full thickness of the unit can be studied. There is access to the beach near to the stream, the River Bride or Bredy, and 155m east of this point a fault down throwing eastwards cuts the cliff, dropping the Inferior Oolite capping sufficiently to bring in Fuller's Earth in a cliff top outcrop. Beyond the fault are the large fallen blocks of Inferior Oolite.

The sandstone is blue-grey when unweathered but has a think weathered surface layer of yellow. Here, fine-grained pyrite is oxidised to limonite or goethite. The sands contain Belemnites and trace fossils and occasional moulds of Ammonites . Aragonite shells have been dissolved away.

There is a smaller cliff just after these high cliffs at Burton, which is made of Forest Marble and Frome Clay, but it is much degraded at its base, as it is protected by a stretch of shingle, part of the Chesil beach. In this cliff, 200m east of the car park the Boueti Bed can be traced in eroded ground between the footpath and the cliff top. It yields the brachiopods Goniorhynchia boueti, Avonothyris, Digonella with bivalve and other fossils. In the cliffs below the Frome clay can be examined and it crops out in the low cliffs at Burton Common and Cliff end....[more]

Geology of North Yorkshire in one boulder at Burton Bradstock

Burton Bradstock is rich in Ammonites and there are many different species, nearly all from the Oolite, including Parkinsonia, schloenbachi Schlippe, Garantiana garantiana, Strigoceras truellei, Strenoceras niortensis, Teloceras blagdeni, Otoites sauzei, Shirbuirnia stephani, Hyperlioceras discites, Ludwigella concava, Tmetoceras scissum, Brasilia bradfordensi, Ludwigia murchisonae. Bones can be found including a sharks spine on the 2002 visit by UK Fossils. fossils.

There are a lot of fallen blocks of Inferior Oolite limestone, there are many beds not just of Ammonites but also a Sponge Bed, Echinoids Clypeus, brachiopods and bivalves etc. This particular bed is only 0.36m thick. It is from the higher part of the Inferior Oolite, the Upper Bajocian.

From within the Frome Clay and Forest Marble beds, although rare, clay, the odd brachiopods Goniorhynchia boueti, Avonothyris, Digonella and bivalves can be found, usually these are quite good specimens....[more]

Ammonite from Burton Bradstock....[more]