Mappleton fossils and fossil collecting |
Very Good
Due to the rapid erosion along this coastline, fresh material is always been washed out, and therefore you always have a good chance of making some nice finds.
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Suitable for Children
This location is suitable for children, but please keep them away from the cliff face and ensure they don't touch anything in the old MOD base. |
Easy access
Free parking at the top of the cliff, with an easy access slipway taking you right on the foreshore. You can immediately start finding fossils as soon as you enter the beach.
Please be aware that this is an old MOD site, and there are plenty of warnings to avoid touching anything along route to the beach. |
Cliffs and Foreshore
You can find fossils in the scree, foreshore exposure and in the cliff face. The sea often washes out fresh material, so there is always plenty to look through.
Often, especially after high tides, the sea will sieve the clay for you, taking all of the fine clay material away, and dumping all the rocks and fossils along the foreshore, making it easy pickings for fossil hunters.
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No Restrictions
There are no restrictions at this location, but you should always collect sensible and safely, please see our code of conduct below.
This location is on old MOD land, parking is free at the top of the cliff. |
Common sense when collecting at all locations should be taken. The holderness coastline and especially the area at Mappleton, has strong currants. The sea often reaches the base of the cliff, as this area has rapid erosion. Please only visit on a falling tide. This is an old MOD, please do not touch anything near the old base, or anything suspicious on the beach.
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| Last updated: |
2009 |
| last visited: |
2009 |
| Written by: |
Emma & Adrian Prince |
Other Locations similar to Mappleton
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If you enjoy collecting from Boulder Clay or Till, where fossils are found as erratics, then why not try the Suffolk Coast. There are plenty of locations to visit including, Happisburgh, Pakefield, Gisleham Quarry, or Corton.
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A pick is handy for the clay, but generally, all you need is a good eye. Remember to tape something to wrap your finds. A hammer may also come in handy to break any rocks.
Trainers or walking boots will be fine, unless you are visiting after exceptionally high tides, where the clay may be quite sticky on the beach.
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The Holderness Coastline is more famously known for its rapid erosion, and as such, the topic for many school projects in geography lessons. Attempts to slow down the rapid rate of erosion have failed, and in some cases made the situation much worse.
These rapid erosion rates makes this area an excellent place to regularly collect fossils, knowing that almost every time you visit, fresh material will be available to search through.
The fossils are erratic's, in other words, they do not come from the actual deposits that they are found in. The fossils were brought down during the last ice age, dragged from Yorkshire trapped in giant ice sheets and dumped at Mappleton.
You can find almost anything from the Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks of Yorkshire, including ammonites, belemnites, echinoid's and mollusc's, being the most common, but also reptile remains if you are luckily. Whilst this makes it more exciting, you can never fully date these fossils as it is impossible to tell exactly what bed they are from.
Search the scree, slipped material and foreshore for fossils. Often the sea will do most of the work for you, acting like a giant sieve, and dropping all the fossils along the foreshore. The fossils can be well hidden, trapped in the clay and around rocks. Sometimes, you can break the rocks with a hammer to find superb specimens inside.
Keep an eye out for large pieces of oak, which would have fallen when the ice sheets came down, flattening everything in their path. As the ice sheets pushed south, pulling the earth with them, fossils and other hard rocks became trapped around these pieces of oak, and sometimes ended up being inside them! to be later infilled with clay.
The beach at Mappleton
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Quarternary, (Erratics) |
Mappleton is part of the Holderness Coastline, and due to its rapid erosion rates, is often the subject for study in school geography lessons.
Holderness is underlain by Cretaceous Chalk but at Mappleton, it is so deeply buried beneath the glacial deposits that it is never exposed on the beach.
The cliffs are dominated by deposits of till and boulder clays deposited during the Devensian glaciation period (Pleistocene age). Within these deposits, you will find many erratics, and it is these that contain the Jurassic and Cretaceous fossils....[more]
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Jurassic ammonite from Mappleton...[more]
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Stone Tumblers |
Microscopes |
Test Sieves for Microfossils |
If you are interested in fossil collecting, then you may also be interested in a stone tumbler (Lapidary). You can polish stones and rocks from the beach which
will look fantastic polished using a stone tumbler.
You can polish rough rock and beach glass whilst collecting fossils, on those days where you come back empty handed.
These are all high quality machines to give a professional finish to your samples. They can even be used for amber and fossils. |
At most locations, you can find microfossils. You only need a small sample of the sand. You then need to wash it in water and sieve using a test sieve. Once the sand is processed, you can then view the contents using a microscope.
We have a wide range of microscopes for sale, you will need a Stereomicroscope for viewing microfossils. The best one we sell is the IMXZ, but a basic microscope will be fine. Once you have found microfossils, you will need to store these microfossils.
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Test Sieves are used when searching for microfossils. Microfossils can be found in many locations, and all you need is a small amount of sample such as clays, sands and shales, or if you have acid, limestone, oolite or chalk.
Our UKGE Store sells Endecotts Test Sieves, which are the highest in accuracy and extremely durable and long lasting. These Test Sieves are fantastic for microfossils. Endecotts Test Sieves come in a variety of sizes, frame material and types, they are certificated to EU Standards. |
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Our International Rock
and Fossil Magazine |
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Mappleton can be found along the B1242. Once you reach the town, you will find a road which is signposted to the beach/MOD.
