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Introduction to Elgol

Fossils and Fossil Collecting in Elgol
Your Skye Geological Guide and Geology Info

Elgol offers beautiful scenery and the guarantee of finding fossils. The sheer number of bivalve fossils crammed into certain layers of rock here is staggering.


Elgol - Skye
Last updated: [26/09/07]  last visited 2007
Jurassic
Written by Joe Shimmin
Fossils & Fossil Collecting in Elgol
(Elgol, Skye) - 2007

Location Information

When the right type of rocks are found they are absolutely jam packed with Cyrena sp. bivalves. Belemnite fossils and occasional ammonites are also found in places.

(Suitable for older children)

The bay where blocks full of fossil bivalves can be found is a fairly short walk away from the harbour, where cars are parked. To reach the bay you must climb over some rough terrain, so smaller children may not be able to hunt here.

Parking can be found next to the harbour, adjacent to the beach. To reach the blocks packed with bivalves a walk of about 400m is required. Most of this walk will be over cobbles and pebbles but in one area a rock platform and boulders must be crossed. This rock platform has numerous gullies in it, so some scrambling up and down is necessary.

Foreshore

Large blocks can be found at the base of the cliffs. Smaller cobbles and water rounded pebbles all packed with fossil bivalves are also present.
ACCESS
RIGHTS

SSSI

Please follow our national fossil collecting code

A UK Fossils & Discovering Fossils initiative (c) 2006

! IMPORTANT SAFETY NOTES !

Be careful when circumnavigating boulders and rock outcrops. Wear shoes with a good grip and avoid areas which have seaweed covering them. If you carry on past the bay with the bivalve fossil blocks the going gets very tough in places and it is possible to become stranded by a rising tide. This location is fairly remote and a mobile phone signal is unlikely to reach you. Make sure someone knows where you are and what time you expect to be back.

Other Jurassic Coastal sites in Scotland

There are a range of Jurassic Coastal sites in Scotland either on Skye or the North East Mainland especially near Brora which have been caused by the Helmsdale Fault. Other locations near to Helmsdale that are featured on UK Fossils are, Crakaig, Golspie, Portgower, Kintradwell, Lothbeg, Brora River, Balintore,Eathie and Brora Foreshore.

Other locations on the isle of Skye include the popular Glasnakille Bearreraig Bay, Faoilean

If you like looking for trace fossils, there are lots of locations all over the UK from various time periods. Abereiddy, Barns Ness, Blackgang, Causey Pike, Crail, Elgol, Fishguard, Freshwater East, Newhay, St Monans, Stair Stream, Presipe.


Stone Tumblers (Lapidary)


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.




Images, Graphics & Content - (C)opyright 1998-2005 Joe Shimmin
UK Fossils Management - Alister Cruickshanks & Roy Bullard
UK Fossils Curator - Ian Cruickshanks
UK Fossils is a division of CWA Design and run in conjunction with UKGE. Whilst we try to ensure that all content is accurate and up to date we cannot guarantee this. UK Fossils takes no responsibility in the accuracy of this content, nor takes any liabilities for any trips, events or exchanges between visitors using either the discussion board or the UK Fossils planner. Any posted trips and events by UK Fossils are personal and not arranged by UK Fossils, therefore visitors should seek their own personal insurance cover. Please remember to always check the tide times.
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