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Introduction to Thorncombe Beacon

Thorncombe Beacon Fossils and Fossil Collecting
Your Dorset Geological Guide and Geology Info

Thorncombe Beacon Yields everything from many species of ammonites, shells including brachiopods, bivalves, pectin's, some superb starfish specimens, crinoids, belemnites and much more. However you often have to work for them.


Thorncombe (Golden Cap) - Dorset
Last updated: [06/03/04]  last visited 2004
Jurassic
Written by Alister and Alison Cruickshanks

(Thorncombe Beacon) - 2000 [Neil Lovesey]

Location Information

If you are prepared to take heavy lump hammers and split blocks from the Dorset Junction Bed, there is plenty to be found, superb ammonites and a wide range of species along with starfish and many other fossils.

(Accepted)

This location is suitable for family trips but not for young children, although you can find fossils on the foreshore, most have to be worked for. The foreshore is also very rocky.

Accessibility is excellent, a car park practically sits on the beach with toilets and pub next to it. However it can be a difficult walk when the beach between Seatown and Thorncombe Beacon Cliff is built up with Pebbles.

Foreshore, Cliff

This is a foreshore and cliff location, so fossils can be found in both. The vast majority of fossils are found in rocks on the foreshore or by smashing Dorset Junction Blocks.
ACCESS
RIGHTS
This site is part of the Jurassic World Heritage Coastline. Please follow the
Fossil Code of Conduct.

Please follow our national fossil collecting code

A UK Fossils & Discovering Fossils initiative (c) 2006

! IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTES !

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 Thorncombe Beacon, the tide often reaches the base of the cliff. It is easy to get cut off from the tide, once past the headland at Thorncombe at both ends, you cannot tell how high the sea is at Seatown beach. For this reason, please take note of tide times and return at the turn of tide.


(View of Thorncombe Beacon) - 2000

Other Locations similar to Thorncombe

There are many locations in the UK which can be seen to be similar to Charmouth. apart from those in the nearby proximity such as Chippel Bay, Lyme Regis, Seatown (Golden Cap) and Charmouth,
in South Wales, you can also try Llantwit Major, and Lavernock. There are plenty of good locations along the Yorkshire Coast too, such as Staithes, Saltwick Bay, Port Mulgrave, Kettleness, Whitby, Ravenscar, Runswick Bay, Sandsend, and many more. In Somerset there are also many locations such as Watchet, Quantoxhead, Kilve, Doniford Bay, St Audries Bay, Lilstock, and Hinkley Point.

Stone Tumblers (Lapidary)


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.

 



Images, Graphics & Content - (C)opyright 1998-2007 Alister & Alison Cruickshanks.
UK Fossils Management - Alister Cruickshanks & Roy Bullard
UK Fossils Curator - Ian Cruickshanks
UK Fossils is a division of CWA Design and run in conjunction with UKGE. Whilst we try to ensure that all content is accurate and up to date we cannot guarantee this. UK Fossils takes no responsibility in the accuracy of this content, nor takes any liabilities for any trips, events or exchanges between visitors using either the discussion board or the UK Fossils planner. Any posted trips and events by UK Fossils are personal and not arranged by UK Fossils, therefore visitors should seek their own personal insurance cover. Please remember to always check the tide times.
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