Runswick Bay tops a list for beachcombing

When I were a lad, I used to really enjoy heading down to the coast at places inc Ravenscar, and bashing at rocks with a hammer in search of fossils. Found many an ammonite or belemnite - tho often managed to break them apart whilst removing from hard rock; later painstakingly put together with Araldite (bit like super glue, for any young uns reading) - and much later, tossed out w the trash by me Mum, bless her.

Any road, just come across article in the Yorkshire Post that brings back memories. Includes:

YORKSHIRE'S coastline may not have the glamour of Cornwall, or be as
popular as Blackpool. But when it comes to beachcombing there's no
better place.

According to a recent list compiled by Miranda
Krestovnikoff, one of the presenters of the BBC series Coast, Runswick
Bay is the best place to go foraging for fossils, shells and rare
stones.

So what makes Runswick Bay and this stretch of coastline
such a treasure trove for would-be beachcombers? Roger Sutcliffe, a
geologist who lives in nearby Whitby, says one thing in particular
stands out.

"What makes this coastline special is that this
whole area, from Redcar down to Scarborough, consists of Jurassic
rocks. So virtually the entire dinosaur era is represented in this
coast."

[Note, though, the rocks here are marine - so get marine creatures as fossils]

In 2002, a 13-foot plesiosaur was discovered near Filey by Doncaster
electrician Nigel Armstrong who spotted a vertebrae while out fossil
hunting and traced the skeleton up the cliff. Such dramatic finds don't
happen every day, obviously, but there are more dinosaur bones out
there waiting to be discovered. "There's an area just north of
Scarborough where there's a particular band of sandstone where dinosaur
footprints occur and a number of footprints of Turkey-sized dinosaurs
have been found there," says Roger.

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/features/Walking-with-dinosaurs-for-a.322...

THe article mentions the Dinosaur Coast Project, which covers North East Yorkshire coast geology; website for this at:

http://www.dinocoast.org.uk/