Discover Wales and Explore the Brymbo Fossil Forest near Wrexham
- Wayne Munday
- 9 hours ago
- 5 min read
Sip back and discover North Wales and explore the Brymbo Fossil Forest near Wrexham, book a fossil forest tour and embark on a deep time journey going back 314 million years! In the hilly rural farmland only a short distance north west from the centre of Wrexham is the village of Brymbo once home to the renowned Brymbo Steelworks known globally for its legacy in coal mining and steelmaking until its closure in 1990. It was at the site of this former steelworks that in 2003 an astonishing discovery was made. Reclamation workers unearthed unusually well-preserved fossilised plants that halted operations and triggered a wave of extensive scientific inquiry. What they found was a rare snap shot into the biodiversity and ecology of an in-situ Carboniferous forest dating back over 300 million years. In the Spring of 2026, Stori Brymbo will open on this site with the aim to create an all year-round, publicly accessible, heritage attraction that integrates geological science with local industrial history.
Brymbo is a village near Wrexham in North Wales and lies at the northern edge of the Denbighshire Coalfield and has a rich industrial heritage rooted in coal, iron, and steel production. Coal mining in the area dates back to at least 1410 when the area was then known as Harwd. In 1885, Brymbo became home to Britain’s first steel plants using the Basic Open Hearth Process and specialised in the production of high-quality engineering steels until its closure in 1990 likely due to the result of an ongoing recession that reduced steel demand and increased global competition which ultimately saw the privatisation of British Steel.
Although the modern steel plant was dismantled, key historical structures, including an 18th century blast furnace and foundry have been preserved within the designated heritage area.
During the Carboniferous Period approximately 359 - 299 million years ago Britain was located near to the equator and experienced a warm and tropical climate. The UK was a dynamic and evolving landscape of shallow seas, river deltas and expansive swampy forests that included some of the earliest gymnosperms or seed-bearing plants. Over the course of millions of years the organic matter deposited by these forests would be compacted and transformed into coal; which would later fuel the industrial rise of Wrexham and North Wales.
The Denbighshire Coalfield in North Wales offers a compact yet detailed geological archive of the late Carboniferous Period telling a story of millions of years of environmental and climatic change that reflects a landscape shaped by vegetation, flooding and tectonic forces.
Exposed on the surface at Brymbo is a 14 metre thick coal-rich bed that represents a swampy forested lowland showing a cycle of repeated peat formation and rapid flooding. The two major coal seams exposed at Brymbo are the Crank and 2 Yard Coal Seams embedded between a succession of palaeosols or ancient soils.
The Crank Coal seam is associated with exceptionally preserved fossils of lycophyte roots, upright stumps and rare arthropods buried in place during sudden flood events and smothered by rapid sedimentation. The 2 Yard Coal Seam is a thick band rich in plant fossils and megaspores. The coal seams bookend a 10 meter section of strata representing several major flooding inundations that buried the standing forests and rapidly preserved them in-situ.
Interestingly, 50 meters to the West of the Fossil Forest site lies the Brymbo Fault, a normal geological fault (part of the larger network of faults belonging to the Bala Lineament), that offsets the surrounding younger rock with the coal-bearing sequences. In 2008, heavy rain exposed a faulted section containing marine fossils thought to be part of the Edmondia Marine Band known locally as the Ty-Cerryg Marine Band. The significance of this discovery of a marine horizon marks an exceptionally rare moment in North Wales when sea levels rose to briefly flood the area and is the only known exposure of this nationally important biostratigraphic horizon in North Wales. .
The Brymbo Fossil Forest preserves the remains of ancient flora and fauna and reveals a picture of a lush wetland ecosystem where dense vegetation and periodic flooding contributed to the exceptional preservation of a wide range of Carboniferous plants and animal life.
The most prominent fossils are from arborescent or tree-like lycophytes such as Lepidodendron, Lepidophloios and Sigillaria with massive trunks up to 2.5 metres tall and 1.5 metres wide with some featuring their exceptionally preserved Stigmaria underground rooting structures and reproductive cones known as a Flemingites.
Another important component of the fossilised flora are the family of Calamitaceae, a horsetail relative, where their hollow stems are preserved as internal casts (Calamites) along with leaves (Asterophyllites, Annularia) and reproductive cones (Calamostachys). Finally, the fossils of ferns and seed ferns known as pteridosperms are mostly found as small frond fragments from Karinopteris, Neuropteris and Paripteris. While the majority of arboreal pteridosperm remains are believed to have been transported by the flood waters rather than growing locally, the sheer abundance of the lianescent of climbing vines of pteridosperm Karinopteris indicates that this fern-like vine did occur locally, winding its way between and up the thickets of Calamites that were opportunistically colonising the waterlogged swamp.
The Brymbo Fossil Forest has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) by Natural Resources Wales (NRW) thanks to the efforts of local volunteers, former steelworkers and enthusiasts who originally formed the Brymbo Heritage Group. This designation safeguards the site from fossil removal or damage and recognises its scientific and educational importance especially in palaeobotany. It also underpins plans to develop the fossil forest as a tourist destination, promoting wider public engagement with its geological history.
Stori Brymbo aims to create a year-round, publicly accessible heritage attraction that integrates geological science with local industrial history. A bespoke shelter now protects part of the fossil forest, allowing for continued excavation and conservation. What makes the project unique is its hands-on, inclusive approach: the fossil forest team is composed of volunteers and students, and members of the public are encouraged to engage directly with scientific work on-site. By removing the barriers between academia and community, Stori Brymbo aims to transform passive observation into active participation.
To keep up to date with the Brymbo Fossil Forest Follow Them on Instagram @brymbofossilforest and on Facebook @Stori Brymbo.
Our Thanks
This blog would not have been possible without the support of Dr Tim Astrop the Fossil Forest Coordinator and palaeobiologist leading the Fossil Forest Project at Stori Brymbo.
Enjoy your visit!