East Runton fossils and fossil collecting

From Cromer, follow the A149 to Sheringham. You will come to the village of East Runton, just past the caravan sites. The village is in a dip, and right at the bottom of the dip, you will see a signpost to the right to 'the beach', it also has a parking sign.
The car park is on the right, you will need to pay, but its not too expensive. There are toilets nearby. From here a slip road to the beach, makes easy access (similar to West Runton)
Once on the shore, walk tot the West (left), and you will see the chalk formations.

GRID REF: 52.93760°N, 1.27383°E

mammal remains, belemnites.

East Runton is the best location for mammal remains from the Pastonian age. It also is one of the only locations where you can see younger pleistocene beds below huge chalk cliffs. The chalk was transported during the ice age, and is spectacular to see.

High

Mammal bones at East Runton are very common from East Runton along, although most are of fragments. The chalk is also packed with belemnites and other fossils.

Suitable for Children

Although suitable for children, East Runton has some tall cliffs and a rocky foreshore, so care should be taken. The rocks on the foreshore are mostly flints which can be sharp and dangerous.

Good Access

Quick and east to access. Parking with toliets nearby with shops in the town just a short walk away.

Foreshore, Cliffs

Most fossils are found in the foreshore gravel exposures, foreshore clays and in the areas of rock and shingle. East Runton has cliffs, but you are more likely to find fossils on the foreshore.

SSSI, No Digging

Digging and taking back samples is not permitted unless you obtain permission from English Nature. This applies from East Runton to West Runton.

Common sense when collecting at all locations should be taken and knowledge of tide times should always be noted. At East Runton, the sea can sometime reach the base of the cliff, and you can become cut off. The foreshore can also be slippery and rocky.

Accommodation

The Grove

The Grove was built in 1797, by Joseph Gurney of Norwich as a holiday home for his family. It stands in 3 acres of gardens, trees and fields. It is just a short distance from the cliffs which can be reached by walking through the grounds and neighbouring woods. Although only half a mile from the town centre, The Grove is situated in tranquil surroundings within easy reach of the main road into Cromer town centre. The house has nine bedrooms for its guests, two of which are family rooms, four are doubles, two twin-bedded and one single. All the rooms have en-suite bathrooms with either a bath or shower. Six cottages in the grounds can cater from two to six people each with its own distinct character. Our heated indoor swimming pool is always a popular attraction. With a constant depth of 1.2m even non-swimmers can enjoy themselves safely.

The The Grove, 95 Overstrand Road, Cromer, Norfolk, NR27 0DJ, Telephone: 01263 512412, English Tourism Council 4 Diamonds

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Last updated:
last visited:

Written by:

02/04/08
2008

Alister and Alison Cruickshanks

Most of the fossils at East Runton are found by searchin on the foreshore, but the gravel beds can be hard, and so a knife or pick will come in very handy. You may also want a hammer for the chalk....[more]

Other locations similar to East Runton

Nearby West Runton can be walked from East Runton for an extended excursion.

For other locations where mammalian remains can be found from the Pleistocene and Pliocene, try Easton Bavents, Weybourne, Easton Wood or Overstrand, Stutton.

For another nearby location where fossils can be found on the foreshore, try Overstrand, or at Weybourne where chalk fossils can be found in the cliff face. Hunstanton is another good location for chalk fossils.

Stone Tumblers

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.

Microscopes

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.


The chalk at East Runton, mainly yields belemnites. These are very common and can be found both in the cliff and foreshore exposures. Echinoids and corals can also be found on the foreshore, but these are less common. From the gravel beds, these deposits contain an extensive vertebrate fauna, which includes carnivores, extinct horse, elephant and several species of'comb-antlered' deer. This is considered the best available locality for fossil vertebrates of this age. Belemnite from the chalk. Fragment of fossil wood from the Pastonian gravel beds. Fragment of mammal bone from the Pastonian gravel beds. Fragment of mammal bone from the Pastonian gravel beds.

Cretaceous, Pleistocene

There are not many locations in the UK, where you can find, huge chalk cliffs sitting on top of pleistocene deposits! East Runton is certain a location which shows the power of ice, as it was glaciers which have been responsible for these spectacular cliffs.

At the very top of the cliffs is the glacial sands and gravels, these can be a thin bed, almost removed totally by ice movement, and in other areas, they can be many metres thick.

The Wroxham Crag forms at the base of these deposits, although the crag is not always continuous and varies in thickness. Some pockets of this bed contain shells beds similar to Weybourne.

Below this is the Beeston Chalk. This chalk however is not continuous, instead it is rafts of ice transported chalk and highly deformed 'contorted drift'. Some areas the chalk is missing, whilst others it forms the bulk of the cliff formation.

The most astonishing successtion is the formations below the chalk, here the chalk sits on Pastonian clay conglomerate and marine shell beds. These can be seen as light blue clay exposed on the foreshore, and hard gravel beds compated together with stones, gravel and small boulders. In other areas, clay, gravels and silts are mixed together in a patchy bed...[more]

Geological Succession of East Runton

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