Robinswood Hill fossils and fossil collecting |
 Take Fox Elms Road from the A4173, just north of a couple of schools and the hamlet of Whaddon. Make your way to the car park at the end of the road and park there. The car park is poorly signposted, so it is useful to have a map with you to find the location.
When parked, walk out of the car park the way you came in and follow the road back down the hill. When the road turns left, you will see numerous paths branching off to the right. To get to the lowest quarry face, you need to take the path with the metal gate. Follow this in a north easterly direction and you will soon come to another gate in front of the quarry face.
GRID REF: 51.83092°N, 2.24022°W
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Fair
It is not hard to find fossils here but their quality is, on the main, fairly low. As the site is an SSSI, larger blocks should not be broken down and no collecting should be carried out at the face itself.
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Older Children
There is easy access to the lowest and most productive quarry. To reach less fossiliferous exposures higher up, a steep walk is required. Children should be kept away from the main quarry face. |
Moderate access
There are no toilets or other facilities here. The car park can be hard to find, so consult a map first. The walk to the lowest quarry is easy but to get to the others a climb is required.
This walk takes you along a geological trail. There are six sites to visit in total, and we recommend the guide booklet at the bottom of this page, as it will give clear easy access information for each site. |
Old quarry faces
and scree
Fossils are mostly found in the scree and weathered rock to the right of the lower quarry face. Directly above, at the higher quarry face, a few partial belemnites may be found in the rocks below the face. Elsewhere on the hill there are other exposures but fossils are infrequent in these. |
SSSI
No Hammering Bedrock
Although there are no restrictions at this location, to preserve this site for future generations, hammering the bedroom is not permitted, you can hammer and collect from the loose rocks and scree. |
In some places there are high, unfenced drops. This site is unsuitable for very young fossil hunters but older children, properly supervised, should be fine. Please ensure that you keep well away from the cliff face where rocks can frequently fall, we recommend a hard hat. Please be aware that it is easy to slip on the scree slopes, so care must be taken. |
| Last updated: |
2009 |
| last visited: |
2009 |
| Written by: |
Joe Shimmin |
Other Locations similar to Robinswood Hill
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Fossils are mainly found in rocks left by the old quarrymen in the woods to the right of the lowest quarry face. However, these rocks and their fossils have suffered weathering over time and good quality specimens are limited.
You will find plenty of fossiliferous rocks among the trees to the right of the quarry face. Common fossils include belemnites, bivalves and brachiopods. However, in the main, these are of a fairly low quality. If you are lucky you may come across a large rock which has been freshly broken due to weathering and this may expose some better fossils.
You can access the quarry face above the lowest one by retracing your steps to the road and taking the path that goes off to a sharp right. Follow this path up the hill, keeping to the left. The path will thin out and almost disappear near the top but will lead you to the entrance to the higher face. Here, pieces of belemnite may be found in the fallen rock.
The views from the top of the hill are worth a climb. If you exit the higher quarry face the way you came in you can follow geological trail posts to the top of the hill. On the way you will see a couple of other exposures but fossils are very hard to find in these.
Scree containing fossils
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Jurassic, 180-195mya |
The Jurassic rocks of Robinswood Hill are of the Aalenian, Toarcian, and Pliensbachian. There are six sites to visit along this trail, covering various formations.
The trail starts at the first site with the middle lias, the Dyrham Formation. This is mostly of ferruginous beds, with alternative bands of shale. Below this formation, is the Charmouth is the Mudstone Formation, although not visible, something interesting to compare geology with.
As you progress along the route, the rocks become younger, with the Marlstone Rock Formation with Iron Oolite at the middle part of the trail, and the final sites along the trail, being the Whitby Mudstone Formation and Bridport Sand Formation.
What makes this area so fascinating is that many of the major geological important sites of the UK, and indeed top collecting areas, of Charmouth, Bridport, and Whitby, the rocks can all be found along this route... [more] |
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Gryphaea in Limestone block....[more]
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Stone Tumblers |
Microscopes |
Robinswood Hill |
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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 This large booklet contains the full detailed geological trail with information specific to each site along the route. Including local information, resources and grid references. Follow the guided walks to take you on a geological guide.
£1.95, Free UK Shipping.
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Our International Rock
and Fossil Magazine |
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