Salt Hill and Bellman Park Quarries (SSSI)
Location and Access Information
Grid Reference: SD 758427
Fossil crinoids.
This site straddles the A671 road immediately to the north-east of Clitheroe and is comprised of three adjacent disused quarries. Salthill Quarry, a Lancashire Wildlife Trust reserve, is about 1 mile to the northeast of Clitheroe. It can be approached by foot from Clitheroe town centre via Salthill Road. By road from Clitheroe, follow the Chatburn Road turning right at the mini-roundabout onto the Pimlico Link Road, turn right onto Lincoln Way (industrial estate), pass the auction mart and off-road parking is available on the right. From outside the town, it can be reached via the A59 trunk road, by turning onto the Pimlico Link Road and left onto Lincoln Way. No permit is required to visit Salthill Quarry.
View the site map on Nature on the Map
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Geological Interest
These quarries are the type location for the Carboniferous Limestone Salthill Bank Beds and the Salthill Cap Beds of the Clitheroe Limestone Complex. The Carboniferous Limestone was deposited in a shallow, tropical sea around 330 million years ago. The quarries provide three-dimensional exposures through features known as knoll reefs. These were mound-like structures which formed on the shallow sea-floor during deposition of lime-rich muds, partly as a result of the growth, on the sea-bed, of large colonies of marine animals, probably crinoids (sea-lilies) and bryozoans. The limestones yield a rich and diverse fossil fauna including brachiopods, crinoids and sea-urchins.
