Studland Bay fossils and fossil collecting
|
 Studland Bay can be reached either by going to Swanage, and then taking the minor roads to Studland, or by taking the main B3351 from Corfe Castle. The later is the best route as it takes you directly to Studland Bay.
There are two car parks at Studland, North and South. From the B3351, the first signposted, is the South Car park, so take this road.
You can use this South Car Park, which is situated near the 'Bankes Arms Hotel'. From here, follow the short track in a narrow ravine to the shore. From here you can either go South to visit the chalk or north to visit the Poole Formation. The Poole Formation yields plant remains and is recommended a visit.
GRID REF: 50.64351°N, 1.94495°W
|
|
Medium
Fossils at Studland Bay are common from the Plant Beds, but they are poorly preserved. Fossils can also be found from the Upper Chalk. |
Older Children
Studland Bay is suitable for older children to fossil hunt, but fossil are not easy to find. |
Cliffs
Fossils are mostly found in the cliff. The foreshore is nearly always sand, which continues from the northern sand dunes, so scouring is most rare. |
World Heritage Site
Studland Bay is part of the Jurassic World Heritage Coastline. Please follow the Fossil Code of Conduct on the safety notes page below. |
Common sense when collecting at all locations should be taken and knowledge of tide times should always be noted. At Studland Bay, the sea often reaches the base of the cliff, so you must collect on a falling tide and return before the tide returns. |
Accommodation
Seaview
Family run bed & breakfast, comfortable non-smoking accommodation with tea & coffee making facilities and networked & wireless broadband in all rooms. Open all year. Private parking.
151 Weston Street, Portland, DT52DG
Tel: 01305 821573
If you would like to advertise on this page, please 'contact us'.
£10/Year or 'FREE' for return links from accommodation website pages. |
Last updated:
last visited:
Written by: |
15/03/08
2008
Alister and Alison Cruickshanks
|
 
|
  |
|
|
To the south of Studland Bay, the upper chalk yields belemnites and bivalves, occasional brachiopods have also be found. The Poole Formation at the North end of the bay yields plant remains, although these are mostly debris.
The best plants used to be found at Bournemouth, but this is now the only accessible location for the Poole Formation. London Clay and the Reading Beds are mostly overgrown and so fossils are few.
Within this same bed, insects are also found. These are well documented and can be seen in local museum
collections. The insect remains are small, so you may need to take back samples,
|
 |
|
At the southern end of the bay, the upper chalk is exposed. This is of the Mucronata Zone from the Campanian stage. Above the chalk is the Reading Formation from the Eocene period, this is mostly pale grey sands.
The Northern end of the bay begins with the London Clay Formation, although this is poorly exposed and overgrown. The Redend Sandstone from the Poole Formation is well exposed up to Redend Point.
At Redend Point, the Pipe Clay Series yields plant remains. This is also part o the Poole Formation of Eocene age.....[more]
|
| |
|
|
Most of the fossils at Studland Bay are found by splitting layers of the Poole Formation. A Chisel pick is most handy at this location....[more] |
|
Other Locations similar to Studland Bay
|
You can find plant remains at this location. Other locations you can find plant remains are Little Haven, Nelton Haven in wales, Whitehaven in Cumbria, Offerton in Cheshire, Besom Hill and New Hay Quarry in Lancashire or try Radstock and Writhlington in Avon. which is very similar or try Jurassic plant remains from Yorkshire, Hayburn Wyke, Cloughton Wyke, Filey, Scalby Ness, Gristhorpe Bay. In Scotland, you can also try Anstruther, East Wemyss, or Crail.
|
Stone Tumblers are used for tumbling and polishing rough rock, stones and pebbles including those found on the beach and glass.
Whilst collecting fossils, on those days where you come back empty handed, you could collect rocks, stones and glass from the beach and tumble then at home.
These are all high quality machines to give a professional finish to your samples. The tumblers can be used with a variety of grits, most commonly Silicon Carbide Grit and Cerium Oxide. We have a wide range of rough rocks for sale too.
|
Microfossils are much easier to collect because they are so small that the vast majority of collections only concentrate on large finds. These small finds can simply be found by taking small samples of sands, crags, clays and soft rocks and examining them under a microscope.
We have a wide range of microscopes for sale, both for the study of fossils, but also educational and professional for use in the laboratory. We have Stereo microscopes, Compound Microscopes, Polarising Microscopes and Monocular Microscopes.
|
We have thousands of Test Sieves for Particle Analysis.
Endecotts Sieves: For accurate dependable results you can't buy a better test sieve than Endecotts. At every stage of manufacture each test sieve is individually inspected.
High Precision Tecan manufactures precision apertures as small as 3 microns for a wide array of applications such as filtering, sieving and nozzles. Its high-performance, ASTM/ISO compliant test sieves satisfy the most demanding fine particle grading requirements. |
|
Our International Rock
and Fossil Magazine |
|
