The Whitehaven coast and St Bees headland is a site of international geological importance. Most of the project area falls within the St Bees SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest ) which gives legal protection to the best sites for nature and geology in England.

'The SSSI comprises a 8km stretch of coast between St Bees and Whitehaven and encompasses the sheer cliff face, an area of cliff-top grassland and the shore down to the mean low-water mark. The cliffs reach a height of 90m in places and expose the St Bees sandstone, some sections of which are of great geological interest for their sedimentary structures. Further south, the cliffs at St Bees are of considerable importance for interpreting late Devensian glacial events and environmental conditions.

Further north, in Saltom Bay the foreshore and adjacent areas provide the best exposure of the Permian rock sequence and marine strata in Cumbria and also the best available exposure of the Whitehaven Sandstone formation'

Click here for English Nature. Citation for St Bees Head SSSI. 1995.

photo courtesy of discoveringfossils.co.uk

Whitehaven is also one of the only places in the country where fossil plants from the Carboniferous period can be collected on the coast. Specimens can be found both in the cliffs and on the foreshore and it is one of the most accessible sites in the UK. Please follow the links below for more information on the geology and fossils of the area.

Cumberland Geological Society (http://www.cumberland-geol-soc.org.uk/)
UK Fossils Network (http://www.whitehaven.ukfossils.co.uk/)
Discovering Fossils (http://www.discoveringfossils.co.uk/whitehaven.htm)

Quick Links:

SSSI | Cumberland Geological Society | UK Fossils Network | Discovering Fossils