Ramsholt Cliff is a geological

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle of ...

north-west of

Ramsholt Ramsholt is a small village and civil parish within the East Suffolk district, located in the county of Suffolk, England. It is situated on the northern shore of the River Deben. The parish church of All Saints is one of 38 surviving round-to ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

. It is a

Geological Conservation Review The Geological Conservation Review (GCR) is produced by the UK's Joint Nature Conservation Committee and is designed to identify those sites of national and international importance needed to show all the key scientific elements of the geological a ...

site, and it is in the

Suffolk Coast and Heaths The Suffolk Coast and Heaths AONB is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Suffolk and Essex, England. The AONB covers ancient woodland, commercial forestry, the estuaries of the Alde, Blyth, Deben, Orwell and Stour rivers, farmland, sal ...

Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty An Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB; , AHNE) is an area of countryside in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, that has been designated for conservation due to its significant landscape value. Areas are designated in recognition of thei ...

. This site is very important historically because it was the basis for the distinction of the

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58Coralline Crag Formation The Coralline Crag Formation is a geological formation in England. It is a series of marine deposits found near the North Sea coast of Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Ca ...

as a new stratigraphical division by the nineteenth-century geologist,

Edward Charlesworth Edward Charlesworth (5 September 1813 – 28 July 1893) was an English geologist and palaeontologist. Edward Charlesworth was the eldest son of the Rev John Charlesworth. He studied medicine but abandoned a career in this discipline in 1836 to wo ...

. The well preserved fossils include several unusual species. Most of this steeply sloping site on the bank of the

River Deben The River Deben is a river in Suffolk rising to the west of Debenham, though a second, higher source runs south from the parish of Bedingfield. The river passes through Woodbridge, turning into a tidal estuary before entering the North Sea at Fe ...

is inaccessible, but a footpath runs along the top and a track leads to a small area of bank.

References

{{SSSIs Suffolk Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Suffolk Geological Conservation Review sites