What to take fossil hunting

The honest list: you need far less than you think. The sea has already done the digging — your job is looking.

The essentials

Sturdy footwear — walking boots or wellies. Rocks are slippery, clay is worse.
A charged phone — for the tide times, and for calling 999 (ask for the Coastguard) if anything goes wrong.
The leave-by time — check this site before you go, write it on your hand if you have to.
A bag for finds — any strong bag; add a few tissues or bubble wrap for fragile pieces.
Warm, windproof layers — beaches after storms are colder than you think, and the best season is winter.

Nice to have

A flask and snacks — the best hunting is a slow three hours.
A hand lens (£5) — turns a good find into a great ten minutes.
Small containers — old film pots or pill boxes for shark teeth and tiny ammonites.
Gardening gloves — for turning stones on cold mornings.
A camera — some of the best fossils (giant ammonites in ledges, dinosaur footprints) must stay where they are. Photograph them.

What about a hammer?

Usually you don't need one — the best finds are lying loose, and you must never hammer cliffs, ledges or in-place rock: at many protected beaches (Kilve, the West Dorset coast) it's against the collecting code. The exception is nodule coasts like Yorkshire, where collectors crack open loose rounded nodules found on the beach — if that's you, bring safety glasses too, split them well away from other people, and expect most nodules to be empty. Beginners: skip it for the first few trips and train your eyes instead.

Before your first trip, read the safety page — five minutes that makes every trip better — and check your beach's forecast for the leave-by time.