From ammonites at Saltwick Bay to Cretaceous clay at Speeton, the Yorkshire coast puts 175 million years of prehistory within reach of the tide line.
Most people know Whitby for the abbey and Dracula. They miss that the beach below it ranks among the finest Jurassic fossil sites in Britain. Fossil hunting Yorkshire coast runs from Staithes in the north to Filey in the south, across some of the most productive fossil-bearing rock in Europe. Geologists call it the Dinosaur Coast. Yorkshire’s cliffs hold ammonites, belemnites, marine reptiles, and in places, the actual footprints of dinosaurs preserved in foreshore rock.
Fossil hunting Yorkshire is a family activity, a serious hobby, and for some a lifelong obsession. The tides do the work. Storms expose fresh cliff sections, and each falling tide uncovers what the previous one hid. You do not need specialist equipment. You need time, the right tidal window, and ten fossil hunting Yorkshire beaches worth returning to.
Region: North Yorkshire and East Yorkshire
Best for: Family fossil hunting, geology walks, coastal exploration
Getting there: Direct trains from Leeds and York reach Scarborough (nationalrail.co.uk). The Coastliner bus connects Scarborough with Whitby, Robin Hood’s Bay, and Staithes. Most sites have road access with parking close by.
Time needed: Half a day per beach at a minimum. Allow a full day for two or three sites.
Whitby Beach: Dinosaur Footprints and Snake Stones
For fossil hunting Yorkshire, Whitby is the natural starting point. Walk east of the harbour past the pier, and the geology changes. The rocks extending towards Saltwick Nab form part of the Lower Jurassic Lias sequence, deposited roughly 182 million years ago when this coast sat beneath a warm, shallow sea.
Locals knew ammonites here as snake stones before geologists named them. The North York Moors National Park confirms that dinosaur footprints survive in the foreshore rocks at low tide, preserved in the same limestone ledges where ammonites weather out each winter. The area between the harbour and Saltwick Nab is most productive on a falling tide. On a clear summer evening, the sun drops behind the headland around 9pm, turning every exposed rock surface a warm yellow.
Where to Stay: YHA Whitby stands directly below the abbey ruins, a ten-minute walk from the beach. Worth Knowing: Whitby Museum in Pannett Park holds ichthyosaur material and locally recovered ammonites from the Yorkshire coast as part of the permanent display.
Saltwick Bay: The Most Productive Site on the Coast
Saltwick Bay sits a mile east of Whitby and holds far fewer visitors than the harbour beach. The foreshore here is what many fossil hunting Yorkshire collectors rate as the most productive single site on the coast.
The bay exposes the Saltwick Formation, Middle Jurassic shales and sandstones deposited in coastal swamp and delta environments around 168 million years ago. The ammonite species Dactylioceras and Hildoceras appear regularly, along with belemnites, bivalves, and plant fossils. Collectors recovered a near-complete skeleton of Steneosaurus bollensis, an extinct crocodile-like marine reptile, here in 1824. Whitby Jet turns up in the black shale seams. Saltwick Bay is an SSSI: collect only from loose material, never from the bedrock.
Where to Stay: YHA Whitby is twenty minutes on foot or five minutes by car. Worth Knowing: Scientists formally named the Saltwick Formation for this bay in the 19th century. It remains a reference section for Middle Jurassic stratigraphy in northern England.
Sandsend: Cliffs Worth Walking After a Storm
Sandsend sits three miles north of Whitby, where the A174 follows the shore. The cliffs here expose all three stages of the Upper Jurassic in a single section, giving this stretch more geological variety than most comparable sites on the coast.
The foreshore yields ichthyosaur bones and other reptile material after cliff falls in autumn and winter. Sandsend Ness, the rocky headland at the southern end, produces belemnites close to the surface with little effort and is suitable for families. Fossil hunting Yorkshire at Sandsend suits experienced collectors on the main beach, where the boulders are slippery, and the tidal window runs shorter than at the bay beaches further south.
Where to Stay: YHA Whitby serves Sandsend well. The village also has self-catering cottages through local letting agencies. Worth Knowing: The cliffs between Sandsend and Whitby contain the thickest known sequence of Upper Lias shale on the Yorkshire coast, running to over 60 metres in places.
Robin Hood’s Bay: Ammonites at Every Turn
Robin Hood’s Bay is the most photographed village on the Yorkshire coast. Most visitors get as far as the central beach and turn around. For fossil hunting Yorkshire, the productive ground is on the north side of the bay, where the foreshore exposes a continuous sweep of Lower Jurassic shale and limestone ledges full of ammonites. Walk out on a falling tide, and you will find them on almost every slab. The north side is also the most consistent fossil hunting Yorkshire ground for beginners on the coast.
The Cleveland Way path runs above the bay to the north. Walk it early on a summer morning when the light is still low, and the whole bay spreads below you in pale grey and green.
Where to Stay: Lee-Side B&B sits a short walk from the foreshore with four rooms and breakfast included. Worth Knowing: The bay sits on the Cleveland Ironstone Formation. The same geological beds that drove the Victorian iron industry here are split by hand on the foreshore to reveal ammonites from three or four species in an afternoon.
Port Mulgrave: Nodules in a Forgotten Port
Port Mulgrave requires effort. A footpath drops from the layby on the B1266 above Hinderwell down steep steps to the ruins of a small ironstone port abandoned in the early 20th century. The effort keeps most visitors away.
The foreshore below the ruined jetty is one of the most productive fossil hunting Yorkshire sites on the coast. Nodules packed with ammonites are constantly eroded out of the cliff base. The reptile material stands out even by Yorkshire coast standards. Port Mulgrave is an SSSI: loose material only. The parking postcode is TS13 5LD. If the layby fills at weekends, The Badger and Hounds pub in Hinderwell has a car park.
Where to Stay: The Captain Cook Inn in Staithes, ten minutes up the coast, has nine en-suite rooms and real ale downstairs. Worth Knowing: The jetty was built in the 1850s to export ironstone to Teesside by sea and handled hundreds of thousands of tonnes of ore before the railway made it redundant.
Kettleness: Reptile Remains in the Headland Shale
Kettleness is a headland rather than a bay, giving it a character distinct from that of most Yorkshire fossil sites. The foreshore of shale ledges and fallen cliff blocks is most notable for reptile remains, which appear with unusual frequency compared with other sites on the coast. The headland sits within Lower Jurassic Toarcian shale, where nodule density stays consistently high. Work the fallen blocks, not the cliff face.
Fossil hunting Yorkshire from Kettleness gives you views north along the full sweep of the coast towards Staithes. In spring, the clifftop path is lined with wildflowers.
Where to Stay: The Runswick Bay Hotel, three miles south, has six individually styled rooms above the bay. Worth Knowing: The alum shale extraction industry that operated along this coast from the early 17th century created many of the cliff-face exposures that fossil hunters now rely on.
Runswick Bay: The Best Site for Families
Runswick Bay is a natural amphitheatre of red-roofed cottages and a wide, accessible beach that makes it the most family-suitable fossil hunting Yorkshire location on the north coast. The foreshore produces a wider range of ammonite species than most comparable sites, with bivalves, belemnites, and occasional reptile material in loose shale on a falling tide.
The bay faces northeast. In the afternoon, the light falls across the foreshore at an angle that makes ammonites easier to spot. Walk from the slipway towards the cliffs at the north end for the most productive ground.
Where to Stay: The Runswick Bay Hotel stands at the top of the village with sea views, five minutes from the beach. Worth Knowing: In 1682, a large section of Runswick Bay village fell into the sea overnight. All but one house disappeared. The village was rebuilt on the remaining ground.
Staithes: Nodules That Split Clean
Staithes sits at the northern end of the fossil hunting Yorkshire coast and consistently produces ammonites in ironstone nodules that split cleanly along natural planes, revealing well-preserved specimens without preparation work. The foreshore below the village exposes Lower Jurassic shale and nodular beds. Walk north towards Cowbar Nab on a low spring tide for the best exposure.
James Cook worked here as a shop assistant in his youth before moving to Whitby and beginning his training as a mariner. The geology you walk on today is the geology he stood on.
Where to Stay: The Captain Cook Inn sits at the top of the village lane with nine en-suite rooms and a short walk to the beach. Worth Knowing: The cliff above Cowbar Nab rises towards Boulby, one of the highest sea cliffs on the English coast, at around 200 metres.
Cayton Bay: Cretaceous Deposits Near Scarborough
Cayton Bay sits between Scarborough and Filey and differs from the Jurassic sites further north. The bay exposes Oxford Clay and Cayton Clay, marine sediments deposited around 160 million years ago. The fossils include ammonites, gastropods, bivalves, and belemnites, but the best finds come on extremely low tides when sand retreats. This unpredictability suits experienced fossil hunting Yorkshire collectors more than first-time visitors. Cayton Bay is an SSSI: no hammering of bedrock.
Where to Stay: Crown Spa Hotel in Scarborough, six miles north, has operated since 1844 with direct access to the coast road south to the bay. Worth Knowing: The Oxford Clay at Cayton Bay is one of the few accessible exposures of this formation in northern England, geologically distinct from the Jurassic shales that dominate the coast to the north.
Speeton Cliffs: Where Fossil Hunting Yorkshire Changes
Speeton is where fossil hunting Yorkshire changes character entirely. Walk south from Reighton Gap along the beach and the cliff clay shifts from grey to a warmer tone. You are now in the Speeton Clay, a Lower Cretaceous formation, geologically distinct from every site to the north, deposited around 130 million years ago in open-marine conditions.
Belemnites are the most common find, followed by ammonites. The lobster Meyeria ornata appears here and in a few other accessible British sites. Dinosaur remains have come from the formation. The Red Chalk layer, visible near the top of the cliff, marks a transition in the mid-Cretaceous sea and is one of the most prominent geological boundaries on the Yorkshire coast. Fossils wash from the soft clay into the scree below: search the scree, not the face.
Where to Stay: Filey Grange in Filey, three miles north, holds a five-star Gold Award and is ten minutes by car from Reighton Gap. Worth Knowing: The Speeton Clay Formation has been a Lower Cretaceous reference section for British geologists since the 19th century and has contributed specimens to the Natural History Museum and university collections across the country.
Practical Tips for Fossil Hunting Yorkshire’s Coast
- Check tide predictions before you travel at tidetimes.org.uk. Arrive on a falling tide and leave at least 30 minutes before it turns. Most sites become inaccessible at high water.
- Wear footwear with ankle support and a grippy sole. Shale foreshore is treacherous underfoot even in dry conditions.
- Bring a small hand lens or jeweller’s loupe. Many of the best finds on a fossil hunting Yorkshire trip are ammonites under 5cm that are easy to miss without magnification.
- Use the AllTrails app to navigate the Cleveland Way coastal path between sites.
- Carry a padded bag or wrap finds in a newspaper. Ammonites in nodules survive the walk back intact. Loose matrix specimens do not.
- For a guided fossil hunting Yorkshire experience, tours run from Whitby with Yorkshire Coast Rocks!. Worth considering for a first visit to Port Mulgrave or Kettleness.
Responsible Visiting
All sites in this guide sit within SSSIs or the North York Moors National Park. Collect only from loose material on the foreshore. Never hammer the bedrock or cliff face. The geology that makes fossil hunting Yorkshire a world-class activity depends on erosion working on intact rock over decades, not on collectors removing it by force. Report any significant vertebrate finds to the local museum or the Natural History Museum.
Reader Q&A
Can I keep fossils I find on the beach in Yorkshire? For invertebrate fossils such as ammonites and belemnites, yes, in most cases. On a fossil hunting Yorkshire trip, the rules are: at SSSI sites, loose finds on the beach are generally yours to take. Any significant vertebrate fossil, including reptile bones or dinosaur material, should go to a museum.
What is the best beach for beginners on a fossil hunting Yorkshire trip? Runswick Bay and Robin Hood’s Bay are the most accessible starting points. Both have wide foreshore areas, reasonable parking, and ammonites that require no specialist knowledge to find.
What equipment do I need for fossil hunting Yorkshire? Nothing special for a first visit. Sturdy boots, a bag, and time on a low tide. A hand lens helps with smaller specimens. If you plan to split nodules, a geological hammer and safety glasses are the standard kit.
When is the best time of year for fossil hunting Yorkshire? Winter storms between October and March expose the most new material. The best finds often appear in the weeks after heavy weather. Summer offers better conditions underfoot and a wider tidal window.
Where to Stay
These properties cover the full fossil hunting Yorkshire coast from Staithes to Filey.
YHA Whitby, Whitby. Below the abbey, ten minutes from the beach, twenty minutes from Saltwick Bay.
Lee-Side B&B, Robin Hood’s Bay. Four rooms, breakfast included, short walk from the north foreshore.
The Runswick Bay Hotel, Runswick Bay. Six rooms above the bay, five minutes from the beach, convenient for Kettleness.
The Captain Cook Inn, Staithes. Nine en-suite rooms, real ale, ten minutes from Port Mulgrave.
Crown Spa Hotel, Scarborough. The Victorian seafront hotel has been open since 1844, six miles from Cayton Bay.
Filey Grange, Filey. Five-star Gold Award guest house, ten minutes from Reighton Gap.
The Yorkshire coast does not preserve its geology for visitors. It exposes it, loses it to the sea, and exposes more. What you find today will be gone in a decade.
For more guides to the Yorkshire coast and beyond, visit our Yorkshire travel guides at Secret GB.
