_Where to rockpool and fossil hunt in Norfolk

When you’re on the Norfolk coast there’s nothing more magical than exploring the depths of a coastal rock pool to visit a hidden world of colourful creatures or, after severe weather, beachcombing for prehistoric treasure can often be very rewarding.

You can rockpool (they’re also known as tide pools) at any time of the year but the best time is from late spring to early autumn when the weather is best and the water is still - this is the easiest way to get up close to marine wildlife, such as bright red beadlet anemones and velvet swimming crabs. The water tends to be warmest in September.

How to go rockpooling in Norfolk

1 Make sure you check the tide timetable beforehand - the best time to rock pool is at low tide.

2 The only equipment you’ll need is a curious mind and sturdy footwear with a good grip. Flip-flops are useless on sharp stones! Don’t forget sun cream and sun hats too. Maybe even a jumbo magnifying glass.

3 A bucket with some salty water in it is useful if you want to take a closer look at what you catch. Change the water regularly. You can also gently pull the bucket through the water to see what you can scoop up. Don’t use a net, as you can hurt sensitive sea life.

4 The best, clearest rock pools are close to the sea edge – look at these first and move back with the tide. Don’t be afraid to get your hands wet – gently turning over seaweed can reap rich rewards. If you pick up a crab do it from behind, with finger and thumb top and bottom of the carapace. But beware of red-eyed blue velvet swimming crab – they can nip!

5 Sit very quietly and make sure you don’t cast a shadow over the pool – timid crabs and other inhabitants will know you’re there.

6 Look out for transparent common prawns and shrimp (which often swim backwards), starfish, and brightly-coloured anemones waving its tentacles at you, mussels and whelks, as well as limpets, the lawnmowers of the sea which scrape algae off rocks with their large rough tongues. Just under the surface you might see goby, butterfish or blenny. You might also see a shell moving on legs – if you do, it’s a hermit crab that’s made its home in a disused periwinkle shell.

7 When you’ve finished and it’s time to go, carefully return the contents of your bucket, salt water and all, to the rock pool.

Norfolk’s coastline is the Deep History Coast – home of the first visitors to the UK almost a million years ago, the largest and best-preserved mammoth skeleton ever found, and a 500,000-year-old flint hand axe that was the Swiss Army Knife of its day. Who knows what might be found next?

Rockpooling and fossil hunting at West Runton

The foreshore from West Runton to Beeston Regis represents Norfolk’s only true rockpool habitat.

When you’re not rock pooling, look out for mammoth teeth or paramoudra flint, known in Norfolk as pot stones, strange-shaped flint stones have distinctive and unusual central voids, like a doughnut ring. These are formed from the precipitation of silica around a tubular core. Paramoudra are thought to have formed around a central worm burrow, the worm no thicker than a little finger, although some paramoudra are metres across, formed by a chemical reaction initiated by organic matter breaking down within the burrow.

You might also find semi-precious stones such as amber, jasper, carnelian and jet on the shore and belemnites, the fossils of squid-like animals, and echinoids from around 80 million years ago.

You might also find fragments of bone, antler and tusk from around 700,000 years ago, from when the British Isles were still connected by land to Europe and the North Sea was an area called Doggerland.

It was here in 1990 that two dog walkers discovered what turned out to be the best-preserved Steppe mammoth skeleton ever found. Please don’t climb the cliffs here – they’re very fragile.

In the low tide rock pools you might discover shore crabs, beadlet anemones (dark red jelly blobs), common hermit crabs, long-spined sea-scorpions and starfish.

Rockpooling and fossil hunting at Cromer and Sheringham

Between Blue Flag beaches Sheringham and Cromer, at low tide, rockpools occur in the Late Cretaceous chalk and flint deposits at the foot of the cliffs.

Rockpool wildlife inhabits have to cope with being submerged by the rising tide and exposed as the tide retreats, twice a day, as well as a wide range of environmental conditions. This includes changing temperature, high salinity, water pressure, choppy seas and constant threat from predators. Some of the easier finds are serrated wrack, velvet swimming crabs, edible winkle and long-spined sea-scorpions. When fossil hunting, you may find fossilised coral, brachiopods and echinoids.

Rockpooling and fossil hunting at Hunstanton

The beach at Hunstanton, famous for its stripey cliffs of Carrstone and chalk, is fertile ground for ammonites, bivalves, worm tubes, belemnites, corals and crustacean burrows. You might even find sharks teeth.

If you’re beachcombing look out for shells, cuttlefish bones, bryozoa, seaweeds, whelk egg-cases and mermaids’ purses.

How to go fossil hunting in Norfolk

Here’s how to be a good palaeontologist in Norfolk…

•    Firstly, please look around to see if there are guidance boards and observe the rules. 
•    Stick to the footpaths. Do not add to coastal erosion by trying to climb up or down the cliffs.
•    Never dig into the cliffs as this will add to erosion and is also dangerous. Much of the coast is a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) which means it’s also illegal to dig into the cliffs.
•    Take only a few representative specimens from the beach.
•    Make a note of where you find fossils. Photos can also be helpful.
•    Write a label for your fossils, including where and when they were collected, plus any other observations.
•    If you are lucky enough to come across a rare find or see a large fossil, please report it to Cromer Museum.
•    Avoid disturbing wildlife.
•    Remember that fossil sites are for everyone to enjoy – don’t collect indiscriminately as this will damage the resource for future visitors.

How to go crabbing in Norfolk