The Bendricks

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 51°23′46″N 3°14′50″W / 51.396117°N 3.2470861°W / 51.396117; -3.2470861 .

The geology of the Bendricks consists primarily of mudstones, siltstones and conglomerates (Mercia Mudstone marginal facies) formed primarily by deposition of silt at the shoreline of a shallow muddy sea during the Early and Late epochs of the Triassic period.

Inland of the Bendricks are HMS Cambria [1][2] and the former Sully Hospital [3] The Bendricks is famous for the discovery of 220 million year old dinosaur footprints dating to the Late Triassic (Norian), some of which have been removed to the National Museum and Galleries of Wales in Cardiff.

[4][5] The BBC featured these footprints and the geology of the Bendricks in its TV series[6] about the Natural History of Wales.

The Bendricks can be accessed via a path which follows the outside of the security fence round HMS Cambria at Hayes Point, Sully or by following the coastal path in a south-westerly direction from the public slipway at the Vale of Glamorgan recycling centre at Hayes Road, Sully.