Bendricks Rock

The Bendricks is a stretch of coastline and an important paleontological site in the Vale of Glamorgan in south Wales located along the northern coast of the Bristol Channel between Barry and Sully at. It lies at the foreshore of the industrial port of Barry between the eastern breakwater of the Barry docks entrance on its western edge to Hayes Point on its eastern edge. This area of the coast is a SSSI. Geology and topographyA promontory of Carboniferous Limestone rock known as Bendrick Rock juts out from the mainland which is completely submerged at the highest spring tide although during a normal tidal period the top of the rock is still visible at high tide. The geology of the Bendricks consists primarily of Keuper Marls and conglomerate formed primarily by deposition of silt at the shoreline of a shallow muddy sea during the Early Triassic and Late Triassic periods. The man-made estuary of the Cadoxton River now enters the Bristol Channel at this point having been redirected during the construction of Barry Docks by the Barry Railway Company which began in 1884. Inland of the Bendricks are HMS Cambria and the former Sully HospitalDinosaur footprintsThe Bendricks is famous for the discovery of dinosaur footprints some of which have been removed to the National Museum and Galleries of Wales in Cardiff The BBC featured these footprints and the geology of the Bendricks in its TV series about the Natural History of Wales.

The Bendricks is a stretch of coastline and an important paleontological site in the Vale of Glamorgan in south Wales located along the northern coast of the Bristol Channel between Barry and Sully at. It lies at the foreshore of the industrial port of Barry between the eastern breakwater of the Barry docks entrance on its western edge to Hayes Point on its eastern edge. This area of the coast is a SSSI. Geology and topographyA promontory of Carboniferous Limestone rock known as Bendrick Rock juts out from the mainland which is completely submerged at the highest spring tide although during a normal tidal period the top of the rock is still visible at high tide. The geology of the Bendricks consists primarily of Keuper Marls and conglomerate formed primarily by deposition of silt at the shoreline of a shallow muddy sea during the Early Triassic and Late Triassic periods. The man-made estuary of the Cadoxton River now enters the Bristol Channel at this point having been redirected during the construction of Barry Docks by the Barry Railway Company which began in 1884. Inland of the Bendricks are HMS Cambria and the former Sully HospitalDinosaur footprintsThe Bendricks is famous for the discovery of dinosaur footprints some of which have been removed to the National Museum and Galleries of Wales in Cardiff The BBC featured these footprints and the geology of the Bendricks in its TV series about the Natural History of Wales.