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Introduction to Samphire Hoe

Samphire Hoe Fossils and Fossil Collecting
Your Kent Geological Guide and Geology Info

The Lower Chalk exposed at Samphire Hoe is highly fossiliferous. Brachiopods are most commonly found, with corals, urchins, ammonites, shark teeth and more also being present. Microfossils are extremely abundant within the chalk and can be extracted relatively easily from rock samples taken home.

Samphire Hoe - Kent
Last updated: [28/01/08]  last visited 2007
Cretaceous
Written by Joe Shimmin

(Samphire Hoe, 2007)

Location Information

Fossils weather out of the cliffs and boulders at the base of the cliffs quite quickly, so there should always be something to find. Many microfossils are guaranteed also.

(Suitable for Children)

An easy walk of about 20 minutes is required to reach the beach where fossils are found. Hazards are minimal, but children should be kept away from the base of the cliffs.

 

There is plenty of parking in a pay and display car park. The walk across ‘The Hoe’ to access the beach is easy. Once the beach is reached, fossils can be found almost immediately.

Cliffs / boulders / pebbles

Fossils are most abundant where seen weathering out of the cliffs, but it may be dangerous to collect these. They are also often plentiful on the surfaces of weathered boulders and fresh cliff fall debris. The beach is composed of flint pebbles and it is worth having a look over these for occasional flint urchins.
ACCESS
RIGHTS
Public footpaths are followed at this location

Please follow our national fossil collecting code

A UK Fossils & Discovering Fossils initiative (c) 2006

Other Locations similar to Samphire Hoe

If you are interested in chalk locations, you could try Seven Sisters Peacehaven, Beachy Head or Eastbourne both in Sussex.

In Kent, St Margaret's Bay, Dover, and Samphire Hoe may be of interest, or in Dorset, Whitenothe.

At Whitecliff Bay and Culver Cliff on the Isle of Wight, Culver Cliff (west of the bay) has tall cliffs of Upper Chalk.


! IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTES !

This is a fairly safe location with few hazards. The sea does not reach the cliffs, except at the very end of the beach, so fossil collecting can be carried out regardless of tides. The cliff can be unstable - avoid hammering into it.

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 2007 - Joe Shimmin
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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