(Location 3: The Onny Trail river) - 2003

LOCATION 1: The Onny River

You will notice a small beach area full of rocks. There is a wide range of different rocks here washed down from the area of the Stiperstones & Lond Mynd. Look for angular black coloured hard slate as these rocks can contain Trilobites from the Silurian shales. Also look out for Ordovician rocks packed full of Brachiopods. Both fossils can be picked up by either walking in the river and collecting from the bed or by searching the rocks along the river bank or beach area (depending on the height of the river).

LOCATION 2: The Old Cliff

At the second location, fossils can be collected from both the lower part of the cliff face in the boggy area, or above where a path leads back up over the top of the cliff, the best beds are those at the top. But Trilobites can be collected from the lower cliff. The trace fossil Tentaculites sp, small screw like impressions are quite common. All fossils are found in the sandstones and shales from the Ordovician flagstones. You need to examine different zones at different levels to find fossils, but once you find out, usually the layer is packed with others.

LOCATION 3: Disused Railway Cutting Area

At the disused railway cutting, you can collect from two locations either in the River searching for both Ordovician and Silurian fossils, or within rocks lying around, or from within the railway bank. The railway bank is by far the most productive and at most horizons, the rocks are packed with Ordovician brachiopods (in particular Heterorthis Alternata). The easiest way is to carry samples from the cutting back to the grass area and split rocks down. You may need preserving liquid on site as the fossils are extremely fragile.

LOCATION 4: The Railway Bridge

Ordovician Sandstones continue to the bridge, were there are vast amounts of fallen rocks within scree slopes to search in, the high cliff faces often crumble to provide plenty to search in without the need to hammer the high faces above. Brachiopods and bivalves are common, but Gastropods and Trilobites can also be found.

(Location 4: The Bridge Cutting) - 2003

LOCATION 5: The Old Quarry

This site is an SSSI site, so no hammering please. You won't find many fossils here as the rocks are mostly Pre-Cambrian but are geologically very interesting to see. You may find the odd rock of Brachiopods from the Ordovician grit, but these are now rare.