Hall Dale Quarry fossils and fossil collecting
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 From the Matlock Bath to Matlock road, head north along the main road. Head towards the station marked on all maps.
At the railway station, you will see a Sainsbury’s behind a car park for the railway, the supermarket car park is round the back. Continue past, and take the road at the junction with traffic lights, into the supermarket entrance.
The road is straight on ahead, passing the supermarket. If you miss it, simply drive through the back of the petrol station, which will take you back on the right road.
Continue along this road for about half a mile. On your life, you will see an area to pull in, with some very large quarry blocks. This is the entrance to the quarry. Park here, and walk through the wooded area, along the path. You will come to a second set of blocks just before the actual quarry.
GRID REF: SK 28835 60329
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Older Children
Because of the very fall cliff faces and large rocks along the quarry floor, we do not recommend this for younger children. Older children should be told clearly, not to venture near the cliff faces and not to climb the huge rock pile up to the second and third levels. |
Good Access
Easy to find, being near the landmark of the railway station and supermarket, easy parking and a very good footpath into the quarry. This is an excellent site to visit.
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Disused Quarry
This is a disused quarry, and unusually with open access. Normally huge quarries like this are closed off with warning signs and fence. This one is used by locals all the time. |
No Restrictions
This quarry has been left open without any restriction on access and an easy footpath leads into it. The footpath however, is not an official one, and the quarry is not on public land. However, people have been coming here for walks for a number of years not just for fossils, but also butterflies, flowers etc. |
This is a very large and deep quarry. Rocks are constantly falling. We highly recommend hard hats. Apart from fragile and very high cliff faces, the rocks on the floor can be also slippery and dangerous to climb. |
| Last updated: |
2011 |
| last visited: |
2011 |
| Written by: |
Alister Cruickshanks |
 
West Quarry is an excellent location for corals, other similar locations for Carboniferous Corals are;Parkhouse Hill, Castleton, Monsal Dale, Steeplehouse Quarry in Derbyshire.
Portishead, Weston-Super-Mare in Avon. In South West Wales, you can also find Silurian Corals from Freshwater East, Marloes Sands. Mortimer Forest, Shadwell Quarry, Upper Millichope , Llanymynech Quarry, and Wenlock Quarry, Wenlock Edge in the Shropshire District. Along the South West Coast, you can also collect Devonian Corals from Torquay along Hopes Nose and Daddy Hole. In Scotland, you can also find corals at St Monans.
From South Wales, Carboniferous Corals can be found at Lydstep Headland, West Angle Bay and Manorbier Bay.
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This quarry is tucked away in the woods. It cannot be seen from the roadside. However, the signs are there. The entrance where you can park, looks just like a lay-by, but the huge quarry blocks restricting vehicle access into the quarry gives it away. In fact, the path just looks like any other leading through some woods. Only if you had a map, you would know something was there.
The blocks have been positioned to allow access by foot, follow the path through the woods, to find some more blocks, and then you will come to a large open area. Continue into this area and you will discover that hiding in these woods, is one of the biggest disused quarries in the Matlock district.
If you carry on ahead of you just to the right of the sheer faces at the top of the quarry), you will see some piles of rocks. Piles is perhaps underestimated, you could spend days looking at them, and still have plenty more to examine. Here, it is easier and safer to find fossils. The surfaces of the blocks are full of bivalves, brachiopods, corals and crinoids. These are all the most common fossils to be found..
What is striking is that so many species of brachiopods and bivalves can be found here. More than most other local places. You will need a good hammer and chisel, although some rocks have weathered to the point that fossils can be picked out. Other rocks, where the fossils are embedded deeply, may proof more difficult. Try to find fossils which can be easy to get out, such as on edges, or near natural cracks.
The quarry has a total of three floors, unfortunately to access these, it means climbing up the pile of rocks. Climbers do actually visit the quarry as the faces are ideal for them, but for the average fossil collector, we recommend staying on the lower floor.
Carboniferous limestone
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Carboniferous, 330mya |
The carboniferous limestone is of the Eyam Limestone Formation (Dinantian age). The quarry was once used to extract the rich crinoids/brachiopod slabs used in decorative purposes, such as paving slabs. The Eyam Limestone Formation is a thinly bedded, dark grey, cherty, bioclastic limestone with fossiliferous beds of brachiopods, corals and crinoids and a few dark mudstone intercalations.....[more]
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Stone Tumblers |
Microscopes |
Fossil Hunting Tools |
If you are interested in fossil collecting, then you may also be interested in a stone tumbler (Lapidary). You can polish stones and rocks from the beach which
will look fantastic polished using a stone tumbler.
You can polish rough rock and beach glass whilst collecting fossils, on those days where you come back empty handed.
These are all high quality machines to give a professional finish to your samples. They can even be used for amber and fossils. |
At most locations, you can find microfossils. You only need a small sample of the sand. You then need to wash it in water and sieve using a test sieve. Once the sand is processed, you can then view the contents using a microscope.
We have a wide range of microscopes for sale, you will need a Stereomicroscope for viewing microfossils. The best one we sell is the IMXZ, but a basic microscope will be fine. Once you have found microfossils, you will need to store these microfossils.
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UKGE, market leaders in Geological Supplies and Geology Equipment. We supply retail, education, wholesale and trade in the UK, Europe and beyond.
With our wide range of geological hammers and geological picks as well as fossil tools, starter packs and geological chisels.
UKGE is your geological superstore, selling a wide range of field equipment, rocks, minerals, fossils, geological and even microscopy! |
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