Natural England - West Runton Cliffs (SSSI)
West Runton Cliffs (SSSI)
Location and Access Information
Grid Reference: TG 183432 to TG 192430
View of the cliffs at West Runton
West Runton is located 3km to the east of Sheringham on the North Norfolk coast. The cliff section can be easily accessed from the beach car park at the end of Water Lane, signposted from the village. The best section is to the east of the car park.
View the site map on Nature on the Map.
Geological Interest
The cliff and foreshore section at West Runton is one of the most important Pleistocene (the last 1.6 million years) localities in the British Isles. The sediments exposed in the eroding cliffs provide evidence for the repeated extreme fluctuations in climate during the Ice Age, with two temperate stages and three cold stages being represented. The sequence records several major advances and retreats of the sea represented by alternations of marine and non-marine sediments. These beds include the famous West Runton Freshwater Bed which was laid down during one of the earlier temperate climate phases and which has yielded many fossil animals including hippopotamus and hyaena. The glacial sediments at the top of the cliff section show structures typical of deposition by ice and have also yielded the fossil remains of an early woolly mammoth, the well known West Runton Elephant. A display on its discovery and excavation can be seen at Cromer Museum.