Explore ancient Clare with local fossils!

To book between October and March,

 please contact me by mobile or email (see below).

Guided fossil tours leave from Seafield Pier 

near Quilty village in County Clare.

Starting times vary from day 

to day as they depend on tides and weather. 

+353857188830

SINGLE AND GROUP BOOKINGS

To book between October and March, please contact me by mobile or email.

+353857188830 

info@fossils.ie

Single bookings

Prices are per two-hour tour per person. Children under twelve go free, but must be accompanied and supervised by paying adult (1:1). 

Group bookings (9 or more persons)

If booking for groups of 9 or more persons, please contact me by email info@fossils.ie or call 0857188830. Thank you!

Children

Children under 12 years go free if accompanied and supervised by a paying adult (1:1). Note: Some of the terrain may not be suitable for small children.

WHY FOSSILS?

Jutta Kruse

Tour guide

I love walking and finding out about everything I see on my walks. 

Fossils are like clues to past environments and events, the challenge is to discover what each fossil is and what it means.

My interest in fossils began when I started noticing unusual patterns and textures in some of the rocks which I encountered while walking on the stunning West Clare beaches. 

But which rocks are fossils and what do they mean? With guidance from expert studies and publications I’ve been able to identify some of them.

Sometimes the hard parts of creatures are preserved, such as the shells of mussels or snails, plants or ammonoids. Other times, traces made by creatures are captured, like burrows, tracks or resting places. At other times the environment itself was captured, such as sand ripples from an ancient beach, imprints from rain that fell millions of years ago or traces of catastrophic earth movements.

Each one indicates that changes in Clare’s climate and environment are the norm rather than the exception: ammonoids which drifted in a deep ocean, creatures that nestled into the sand on a tidal beach and plants that got washed into a muddy river delta.

If you’re interested to find out more please come and join our tours!

LOCATIONS

All our fossil tours aim to raise awareness, increase appreciation and encourage conservation of Ireland's natural landscapes. In this sense, any fossils and other features we encounter may be photographed, but not collected.

We aim to disturb wildlife as little as possible on our walks. The Seafield fossil tour takes place in a Special Areas of Conservation (Carrowmore Point to Spanish Point and Islands SAC) and a Special Protection Area (Mid-Clare Coast SPA). We abide by Irish and European law regarding the Special Areas of Conservation and Protection as well as 'Leave No Trace' principles.

For now, we explore ancient County Clare with fossils from Seafield beach, as it has a great variety of fossils and is freely accessible. 

SEAFIELD

We’ll explore the west beach at Seafield, near Quilty in County Clare.

All fossils here are from the Namurian stage (326.4 to 313.0 million years ago) during the Pennsylvanian (Upper Carboniferous) period.

Typical fossils include:

--- extinct plants: lepidodendron, stigmaria, calamites

--- goniatites - an extinct type of marine ammonoid

--- trace fossils of burrowing, feeding or resting marine creatures.

BOOK SEAFIELD TOUR

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