Watton Cliff fossils and fossil collecting

Follow the narrow road from the A35. This road is just west of Bridport and leads through the Eype village. There is limited parking here near the shore, otherwise it is possible to park in a field. This road is not suitable for large vehicles such as buses or coaches.
From here, walk East along the beach until you reach Watton Cliff.
It is too dangerous to access this location from West Bay, and many people have injured themselves trying to access the beach from the rocks at the end of the promenade. Eype is a much better access point, and one which we recommend.

GRID REF: 50.71271°N, 2.77215°W

microfossils, mollusc's, mammals, reptiles

Watton Cliff is an excellent location for collecting microfossils, you will need a microscope to view the finds once you process your samples. Mammals, fish, reptiles, ostracods, plant remains and crinoid remains are all commonly found.

Very High

Providing you collect samples from the right beds, Watton Cliff is very productive and full of microfossils.

Not for Children

Locations for microfossils are generally not recommend for children 'searching for fossils', as the finds will be made back at home or in the lab once you process them.

Good Access

Accessibility to the Watton Cliff is easy if you drive to Eype and walk east along the beach, its not too far to walk. We do not recommend the route from West Bay as access to the beach is difficult, and in the past people have slipped and injured themselves on the rocks.

Microfossils

Fossils at Watton Cliff are found when processing samples of Forest Marble which can be found on the foreshore.

World Heritage Site

Watton Cliff 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. Care should be taken of tides at all locations and at Watton Cliff, the tide often reaches the base of the cliff. It is easy to get cut off from the tide. To reach the cliff, you will need to climb down the rocks at the end of the promenade, extreme care must be taken.

Watton Cliff
Tide Times

UK Tidal data is owned by Crown Copyright, and therefore sadly we are not allowed to display tide times without paying expensive annual contracts. However we sell them via our store, including FREE POSTAGE
Click here to buy a tide table

Accommodation

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Last updated:
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Written by:

08/03/08
2008

Alister and Alison Cruickshanks


Microfossils are mostly found in the soft sandy beds from the Forest Marble, these are more orange colour and crumble in your hands, although many other beds yield small fossils such as mammals, reptiles etc. Since the Forest Marble is found at the very top of the cliff, you need to search the blocks of fallen material at the base of the cliff. Brachiopods and corals can be found from the underlying Frome Clay, but these are not common. Although the cliff-top exposures at Watton Cliff look fairly thin, they are actually the most complete section of the Forest Marble Formation found in Dorset, the section is some 25m in thickness, but only two beds are good for microfossils. These can be detailed below.....[more]

Jurassic, 170mya

The lower succession at Watton Cliff comprises of the Frome Clay Formation (Jurassic age). Of this, three beds have been identified. In total, nearly 30m of this formation can be seen, the bulk of which (25m) are the lowest beds of the Frome Clay, the Grey Marls. Above this, a thin bed 0.84m thick has gard, fissile white marl, whilst at the top of this formation there are some 2.74m of bluish-yellow mark containing a thin band of hard white marl.

The uppermost succession is the 'Forest Marble Formation' being the most complete succession in Dorset. Here, the lowest thin bed (0.30m thick), make up the Boueti Bed where microfossils can be found. This bed is hard, sandy and stained reddish brown....[more]

Geological Succession of Watton Cliff


Microfossils from Watton Cliff are well-documented. In particular, four mammal species have been found. These are Eleutherodon oxfordensis, Amphilestes broderipii, Borealestes serendipitus and Trenchnotheria indet. A single tritylodont tooth has also been recovered from Stereognatbus sp. Fossil fish teeth and fragments, shark teeth(Asteracanthus sp.), crocodile remains (Teleosaurus sp.), reptile remains, amphibians, crinoid fragments (Apiocrinites sp.), bryozoans and ostracods are also found. Small brachiopods including Goniorhynchia boueti, Avonothyris langtonensis, Ornithella digona and bivalves including Chlamys vagans, Camptonectes sp., Plagiostoma sp., Praeexogyra sp are also common....[more] Bryozoan from Watton Cliff....[more]

Geological Tools

Fossils from Watton Cliff are 'Microfossils' so you will need to take samples back home and process, then view in a microscope. You will need sample bags to collect the samples and a pick to break apart the bed. You will also need a sieve later for processing these and something to store your microfossils....[more]

Other Locations similar to Watton Cliff

There are many locations suitable for collecting Microfossils. The ones featured on UK Fossils are Seatown, Watton Cliff and Poxwell Quarries.

Stone Tumblers (Lapidary)

Microscopes

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.

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