Church Ope Cove fossils and fossil collecting
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 Follow signs to the Isle of Portland from Weymouth and once you are on the island, you will drive through Fortuneswell, follow the road from here to Easton, take the Eastern Road towards the museum and continue down the eastern side of the Island.
There is car park just before Perryfield Quarry, with a footpath on the opposite side of the road taking you to Church Ope Cove.
Parking is FREE on the Island of Portland (with the exception on the privately owned car park at Portland Bill). Follow the path to the church, and from here the path continues down some steps on the northern side of the church yard, this will take you all the way down to the beach, from here walk to the South.
GRID REF: 50.53731°N, 2.42884°W
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Low
Fossils at Church Ope Cove are not common and those that can be found are poorly preserved.
The ammonites have mostly been taken, although fragments can be seen in the cliff face around the Southern end of the bay.
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Not for Children
Church Ope Cove is not suitable for children to fossil hunt, as the rocks are too big for children to climb over. There is no easy access around the two headlands. |
Poor Access
Accessibility at Church Ope Cove is poor at Church Ope Cove, since you have to climb over some very large rocks which is not easy. |
Cliffs, Rocks
Fossils are mostly found in the rocks fallen at the base of the cliff. At Church Ope Cove, you will have to climb over these.
There are plenty of fossils that can be seen in the blocks, and these are best photographed so that others can enjoy seeing them in the rocks. |
No Restrictions
There are no restrictions on the Isle of Portland, but sensible collecting is important for all locations. Please follow our Code of Conduct found under our safety notes section below.
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. Although the bay itself is quite safe, the two headlands are very rocky, you will have to climb over the rocks which can be quite dangerious, so please take extra care. |
Church Ope Cove
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
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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: |
09/03/08
2008
Alister and Alison Cruickshanks
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| Most of the fossils at Church Ope Cove 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] |
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At the top of the cliffs at Church Ope Cove, is the Purbeck Beds, 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, an example is the photo below which shows a block full of poorly preserved shells from this bed....[more]
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Other Locations similar to Church Ope Cove
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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.
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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.
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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. |
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