West Runton Beach

West Runton is a small village on the north Norfolk coast and we went there to collect fossils!

The beach is reached by a steep roadway down from the car park, past the cafe shop and the public lavatories (which are adequate but busy - take your own paper)!  The car park is large, grassy and potholed.  Also quite good value with a flat daily rate of £2.50.

Once on the beach a huge, wooden shore protecting construction runs the length of the beach.  The fossil beds are at beach level in the dark coloured strata but are also contained within the chalk that is on the foreshore and exposed at low tide.

The beach itself is partially sandy, partially stony and the exposed chalk beds leave wonderful pools for the children to play in.  There were lots of anemones and whelks, perhaps even a crab or two.

We found lots of belemnites in the chalk.  Nik also found sponges and a bivalve.  We'll go back in months with an R to pick winkles and whelks.  Also to look for mammals in the cliff face.

Excellent fossil information for West Runton can be found on the UK Fossils Network site.

Date of visit: 27 May 2013.

Welcome!

Welcome to my Halcyon Days Out blog.

I wanted something that would tell me about the places we visit - what's there and what's good.  Also what to avoid and what to treasure.

We set out from our holiday bungalow on the River Thurne, the subject itself of a blog on the renovations, to the towns, villages, attractions and events around Norfolk.  And then decide what we think of the things we have done.  That's where the blog comes in - so we can record what we thought and share that with everyone.  

There are lots of review sites on the internet, this isn't meant to challenge those.  We just want to record and recommend.