page_title: Southerndown Coast
section_title: Southerndown Coast SSSI
hierarchical_section_title: Southerndown Coast / Southerndown Coast SSSI
caption_attribution_description: English: A rugose coral fossil embedded in a rock pool, showing mineralised internal structure, on the foreshore just south of Ogmore.
context_page_description: Southerndown Coast is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in St Brides Major community, in the Vale of Glamorgan, South Wales. It forms part of the Glamorgan Heritage Coast, bordered by the Monknash Coast to the southeast. The nearby villages are Southerndown and Ogmore-by-Sea. The SSSI extends over 5 kilometres of south-west facing coastline, with rocky limestone cliffs, broad beaches and deeply fissured wave-cut platforms.
context_section_description: The 153 hectares (380 acres) stretch of shore, cliff, cliff-top, and several short, steep valleys, are designated an SSSI both for their geology and botanical value. The cliffs expose the local Jurassic geological strata and some of the underlying Carboniferous Limestone, the latter dating from between 359 to c. 330 million years ago. By the Triassic period, 200 million years ago, the Carboniferous rocks had already been tilted and eroded. A new deposition phase created more sedimentary rocks, including a red Triassic conglomerate, and a creamy white Jurassic limestone known as Sutton Stone, a freestone much sought-after for carved stonework, and so widely quarried where it occurs. The SSSI is in two parts. The northern section is the wave-cut platform alongside Ogmore-by-Sea. The southern section, with a short gap, covers both the intertidal areas and the cliffs and grassy cliff-tops of Dunraven Bay, Trwyn y Witch headland and the valleys and shoreline of Cwm Mawr and Cwm Bach. The whole length of the SSSI is traversed by the South Wales section of the Wales Coast Path.
caption: A rugose coral fossil embedded in a rock pool, showing mineralised internal structure, on the foreshore just south of Ogmore.
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