| Site of Special Scientific Interest | |
 The site in Clacton Golf Course | |
| Location | Essex |
|---|---|
| Grid reference | TM 146128 TM 156134 TM 173142 |
| Interest | Geological |
| Area | 26.1 hectares |
| Notification | 1986 |
| Location map | Magic Map |
Clacton Cliffs and Foreshore is a 26.1-hectare (64-acre) geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Clacton-on-Sea in Essex.[1][2] It is a Geological Conservation Review site.[3]
This site is described by Natural England as "one of the most important Pleistocene interglacial deposits in Britain". It dates to the warm Hoxnian Stage around 400,000 years ago. Flint tools found there in the early twentieth century have made it the type site for the Clactonian, a core-and-flake industry of homo erectus, although paleontologists disagree whether it is really a separate industry from the Acheulian.[1][4]
The site is in three separate areas. Two are on the shoreline footpath, but no geology is visible. The third is in the south-west corner of Clacton Golf Course, and there is no public access.
- ^ a b "Clacton Cliffs and Foreshore citation" (PDF). Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
- ^ "Map of Clacton Cliffs and Foreshore". Sites of Special Scientific Interest. Natural England. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
- ^ "Clacton (Quaternary of the Thames)". Joint Nature Conservation Committee. Retrieved 8 June 2016.
- ^ Pettit, Paul; White, Mark (2012). The British Palaeolithic: Human Societies at the Edge of the Pleistocene World. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. pp. 172–92. ISBN 978-0-415-67455-3.