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Photo for Shropshire Wildlife Trust - Wild Places Page

SHROPSHIRE

COMLEY QUARRY

Small but awesome, Comley Quarry is a holy place for geologists. Britain's earliest trilobites were discovered here in the 1880s - creatures that lived at the bottom of the sea some 550 million years ago.

Rocks from this age, known as the Cambrian period, contain the first evidence of creatures with shells, similar to those we find in the sea today.

Photo: Crustacean of the Cambrian era, discovered at Comley
 

Photo: Comley Quarry

Fossil hunting is not permitted here, but lean over the fence, stare into this tiny amphitheatre and think that recorded in these rocks are the traces of the first flowering of life, the origin of our world today!

Comley is known internationally as a reference section against which rocks of similar age the world over are compared.

DIRECTIONS

Approach Comley from the A49, turning off either at Leebotwood or north of Church Stretton towards Cardington. Parking is awkward but possible. Alternatively, take a footpath up Caer Caradoc and include Comley Quarry in a loop of your walk.
 
Location: 6km north east of Church Stretton
Grid ref: SO 484 965
Size: 0.1ha
Ownership: Shropshire Wildlife Trust
Management: Shropshire Wildlife Trust
Shropshire Wildlife Trust, 193 Abbey Foregate, Shrewsbury SY2 6AH. Tel: 01743 284280.