The Bendricks is a stretch of coastline and an important

paleontological Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of foss ...

site in the

Vale of Glamorgan The Vale of Glamorgan ( cy, Bro Morgannwg ), often referred to as The Vale, is a county borough in the south-east of Wales. It borders Bridgend County Borough to the west, Cardiff to the east, Rhondda Cynon Taf to the north, and the Bristol ...

in south

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

located along the northern coast of the Bristol Channel between

Barry Barry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Barry (name), including lists of people with the given name, nickname or surname, as well as fictional characters with the given name * Dancing Barry, stage name of Barry Richards (born c. 19 ...

and Sully at . It lies at the foreshore of the industrial port of Barry between the eastern breakwater of the

Barry docks Barry Docks ( cy, Dociau'r Barri) is a port facility in the town of Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, a few miles southwest of Cardiff on the north shore of the Bristol Channel. They were opened in 1889 by David Davies and John Cory as an alterna ...

entrance on its western edge to Hayes Point on its eastern edge. This area of the coast is a Site of Special Scientific Interest.

Geology and topography

A tidal promontory of

Carboniferous Limestone Carboniferous Limestone is a collective term for the succession of limestones occurring widely throughout Great Britain and Ireland that were deposited during the Dinantian epoch (geology), Epoch of the Carboniferous period (geology), Period. T ...

known as Bendrick Rock ( cy, Craig Bendrick) juts out from the

mainland Mainland is defined as "relating to or forming the main part of a country or continent, not including the islands around it egardless of status under territorial jurisdiction by an entity" The term is often politically, economically and/or dem ...

here. Only the highest part of the promontory at its seaward end normally remains visible at high tide, though the highest

spring tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ca ...

s cover it entirely. 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 In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided by ...

of the

Triassic The Triassic ( ) is a geologic period and system (stratigraphy), system which spans 50.6 million years from the end of the Permian Period 251.902 million years ago (Year#Abbreviations yr and ya, Mya), to the beginning of the Jurassic Period 201.36 ...

period. The Cadoxton River now enters the Bristol Channel by a concrete 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 Hospital

Dinosaur footprints

The Bendricks is famous for the discovery of 220 million year old

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

footprints dating to the

Late Triassic The Late Triassic is the third and final epoch of the Triassic Period in the geologic time scale, spanning the time between Ma and Ma (million years ago). It is preceded by the Middle Triassic Epoch and followed by the Early Jurassic Epoch. ...

( Norian), 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 footprints were first identified in 1974 and are deposited in the Triassic red beds and were made by the

ichnospecies An ichnotaxon (plural ichnotaxa) is "a taxon based on the fossilized work of an organism", i.e. the non-human equivalent of an artifact. ''Ichnotaxa'' comes from the Greek ίχνος, ''ichnos'' meaning ''track'' and ταξις, ''taxis'' meaning ...

'' Anchisauripus'', a small

theropod Theropoda (; ), whose members are known as theropods, is a dinosaur clade that is characterized by hollow bones and three toes and claws on each limb. Theropods are generally classed as a group of saurischian dinosaurs. They were ancestrally c ...

, ''

Grallator ''Grallator'' GRA-luh-tor"is an ichnogenus (form taxon based on footprints) which covers a common type of small, three-toed print made by a variety of bipedal theropod dinosaurs. ''Grallator''-type footprints have been found in formations dati ...

'', also a small

, and '' Tetrasauripus'', a

sauropodomorph Sauropodomorpha ( ; from Greek, meaning "lizard-footed forms") is an extinct clade of long-necked, herbivorous, saurischian dinosaurs that includes the sauropods and their ancestral relatives. Sauropods generally grew to very large sizes, had lon ...

Visiting

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

recycling centre at Hayes Road, Sully. The footprints can be difficult to see. Many are covered at high tide so it is easier to see them after high tide when the tracks may retain small puddles of water. It is also easier to spot the footprints when the sun is low in the sky as longer shadows will help throw the footprints into relief. There is a small residential street known as Bendrick Road, consisting of around 50 houses.

References

External links

* {{Vale of Glamorgan Bendricks Bendricks Sites of Special Scientific Interest in the Vale of Glamorgan