Laycock Railway Cutting

Site of Special Scientific Interest
Location within Somerset
Location	Somerset
Grid reference	ST678213
Coordinates	50°59′24″N 2°27′36″W / 50.9901°N 2.4601°W / 50.9901; -2.4601
Interest	Geological
Area	1.3 hectares (0.013 km2; 0.0050 sq mi)
Notification	1993 (1993)
Natural England website

Laycock Railway Cutting (grid reference ST678213) is a 1.3 hectare geological Site of Special Scientific Interest^[1] near Milborne Port in Somerset, notified in 1993. It is a Geological Conservation Review site. All of the land designated as Laycock Railway Cutting SSSI is owned by Network Rail.^[2]

Laycock Railway Cutting is the best single exposure of the Bathonian ’Fuller's Earth Rock’ in South Somerset. Ammonites indicating the Morrisi and Subcontractus zones of the Middle Bathonian are frequent. Ammonites are generally extremely rare at this level in Britain and their presence at Laycock is of international stratigraphic importance. The combination of features of both litho- and chrono-stratigraphical importance make Laycock Railway Cutting a key British Bathonian locality.

• English Nature citation sheet for the site (accessed 10 August 2006)

• English Nature website (SSSI information)