Portland Bill fossils and fossil collecting

Portland Bill is the islands main attraction, so accessing it is very easy, simply follow the main road signposted to Portland Bill, or 'The Bill of Portland' as written on some maps.
There is car park at the bill, but as it is privately owned there is a car parking fee. Toilets are provided on site, and there is a museum and cafe along with an excellent pub.
From the car park, there are plenty of rocks around which contain fossil oysters and other shells, West of the lighthouse, a raised beach can be examined with local mesozoic rocks, as well as granite, bunter and quartzite pebbles.

GRID REF: 50.51458°N, 2.45826°W

bivalves, oysters, trace fossils

Portland Bill is the islands main attraction, and it has rocks scattered around that contain fossils. The fossils are not very well preserved and only oysters and bivalves can be found along with trace fossils, but is a nice location for a short visit.

Very Low

Fossils at Portland Bill are not common and those that can be found are poorly preserved.

Most of the fossils are oysters and other mollusc's that can be found in the Portland Beds.

Suitable for Children

Portland Bill is suitable for children, they can look at the rocks and toilets are provided on site.

Very Good Access

Accessibility at Portland Bill is very good, it is the main attraction on the island and easy to find.

Disused Quarry, Rocks

Fossils are mostly found in the rocks lying around from the old disused quarry, and quarry waste.

Fossils are found mostly in the piles of rocks around the area. We suggest photographing rather than collecting, so that others can see them.

Private - No Collecting

Portland Bill is privately owned, and collecting, hammering and taking samples is not permitted.

We do recommend leaving the fossils in the rocks for others to view and photograph.

Common sense when collecting at all locations should be taken and knowledge of tide times should always be noted. If exploring the foreshore at Portland Bill, extreme care should be taken as the sea often hits the cliffs.

Portland Bill
Tide Times

UK Tidal data is owned by Crown Copyright, and therefore sadly we are not allowed to display tide times without paying expensive annual contracts. However we sell them via our store, including FREE POSTAGE
Click here to buy a tide table

Accommodation

Seaview

Family run bed & breakfast, comfortable non-smoking accommodation with tea & coffee making facilities and networked & wireless broadband in all rooms. Open all year. Private parking.

151 Weston Street, Portland, DT52DG
Tel: 01305 821573

If you would like to advertise on this page, please 'contact us'.
£10/Year or 'FREE' for return links from accommodation website pages.

Last updated:
last visited:

Written by:

10/03/08
2008

Alister and Alison Cruickshanks

Geological Tools

Most of the fossils at Portland Bill are found by in the hard Portland Stone. You will need a good quality hammer and chisel to get any fossils out. A Crack hammer is recommended at this location....[more]


Within the rocks scattered around the lighthouse area, you can find the burrows of animals (trace fossils), algae traces, bivalves and oysters which are also common from this formation. We recommend photographing these rather than trying to get them out of the rock, since this is a popular privately owned location, and a major tourist attraction. Bivalves are the most common fossil at Portland Bill Look out for trace fossils at Portland Bill, such as these algae marks Oysters are also very common in the Portland Beds

	Jurassic, 145mya
At the top of the cliffs at Portland Bill, is the Purbeck Beds of, these are the Lulworth Formation. Below this is the Jurassic, Portland Beds, Cherty Series. Rocks from the Basal Shell Bed can also be seen in blocks fallen from the cliff.....[more]

Other Locations similar to Portland Bill

For other locations with Portland Stone, try Dancing Ledge, Freshwater Bay, Perryfield Quarry, Church Ope Cove, or West Weare in Dorset

Stone Tumblers (Lapidary)

Microscopes

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.

Our International Rock and Fossil Magazine