Can you keep the fossils you find in Denmark?

Common fossils collected for personal use are yours to keep. Danish law reserves scientifically important specimens for the state, and the managed sites apply that rule through their own staff. Geomuseum Faxe asks to see large articulated crabs and complete coral heads before you leave Sydbruddet. Museum Sønderjylland requires that whale and seal bone, articulated fish and large shark teeth from the Gram clay pit are reported at the pit. Fur Museum lets you keep everything you find and tells you if a specimen is an exception. At Arnager, report intact ammonites, articulated vertebrate material and complete sponges to NaturBornholm in Aakirkeby or to the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS).

Which Danish fossil sites are free and which charge a fee?

Five of the eight sites in this guide are free: Stevns Klint at Højerup, Møns Klint beach, Arnager Beach on Bornholm, Rødvig Beach and the beach below Stendalgraven quarry. Three charge. Faxe Quarry takes a day fee at the Geomuseum Faxe reception, Fur Museum charges 80 DKK for adults and 40 DKK for children aged 6 to 17, and Gram Clay Pit is included in standard museum admission with no extra collecting fee. Parking at GeoCenter Møns Klint costs 45 DKK per day even though the beach itself is free.

Can you use a hammer at Danish fossil sites?

It depends on the site, and the protected chalk cliffs are the strict case. No tools are permitted at Stevns Klint or at Møns Klint. You collect loose surface material at both, and hammering or digging into the cliff face is prohibited. Faxe, Fur Museum, Gram and Stendalgraven all allow tools. Faxe and Fur Museum make safety glasses mandatory while you hammer, and Fur Museum and Gram lend the tools you need. At Arnager, light hand-hammering of loose foreshore blocks is accepted, but the in-place limestone ledges must be left alone.

Do tides matter when you collect fossils in Denmark?

The Baltic has almost no astronomical tide, so rising water is not the hazard it is on an Atlantic coast. Wind and air pressure set the water level instead. A strong westerly drops the water at Arnager and Rødvig and opens up more ledge and beach. An easterly or a southerly storm surge covers the same ground, sometimes quickly. Check a coastal forecast before you drive out, and stay off the lower ledges in an onshore wind.

Which Danish site is best for a first visit with children?

Fur Museum. The collecting pit has stable walls and a level floor, the moler is soft, and it splits without dangerous flying fragments. Staff provide the tools and the safety glasses and identify what you find. Rødvig Beach is the best free option for families, because the walk from the parking lot is level and belemnites are abundant on the foreshore. Møns Klint is harder with young children, because the only direct route down is a 497-step staircase.

What is the fish clay at Stevns Klint?

The fish clay is a dark clay band a few centimeters thick that separates white Late Cretaceous chalk below from gray Paleocene limestone above. It contains iridium at 30 to 160 times normal crustal levels, plus shocked quartz grains and microtektites, which are all products of a large asteroid impact. The Alvarez team used the iridium anomaly here in 1980 as evidence for the impact hypothesis, and UNESCO listed the cliff in 2014. An interpretive sign marks the band about 100 meters north of the main beach access at Højerup. You cannot collect from the cliff face, but you can examine and photograph the band from a safe distance.

Denmark Fossil Hunting Guide

8 Best Fossil Hunting Sites in Denmark

Denmark is the easiest country in northern Europe for a beginner to find a real fossil. Wave erosion along the Baltic strips the chalk cliffs every winter and leaves belemnites, sea urchins and brachiopods loose on the beach, where they need no tools and no permit. Three museums run paid collecting areas for the harder rock at Faxe, Fur and Gram, and each one lends or sells the kit and lets you keep ordinary finds. These eight sites run from the Campanian of Bornholm to the Late Miocene shark teeth of southern Jutland.

Photo: Dirk Schmidt, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

8 fossil sites

Updated 4 November 2026

What makes Denmark productive

Denmark stacks one shallow marine sequence on top of another, and these eight sites read as a time series. Arnager Beach on Bornholm exposes the only Campanian marine succession in the country, at roughly 83 to 72 million years old. The Maastrichtian chalk of the Møns Klint Formation comes next at Møns Klint, Rødvig and Stevns Klint. That chalk is built almost entirely from coccolithophore plates, which settled at 2 to 3 centimeters per thousand years in water 100 to 200 meters deep. The Faxe Formation sits just above the extinction boundary and records a Danian cold-water coral mound, closer to a modern North Atlantic Lophelia reef than to a tropical one. Fur and Stendalgraven then jump to the Early Eocene Fur Formation, and the Gram clay pit closes the sequence in the Late Miocene.

Access is the other reason Denmark works so well. The Baltic undercuts the chalk every winter and restocks the beaches with fresh material, so Stevns Klint, Rødvig and Møns Klint need no tools at all. Where the rock resists a beach walk, a museum runs the access instead. Geomuseum Faxe takes visitors into the south pit at Faxe, Fur Museum keeps a supervised pit on Fur island, and Museum Sønderjylland manages the clay pit at Gram. All three charge, all three provide or sell the kit, and all three let you keep ordinary finds. The Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) documents the formations behind every site on this list.

1
Faxe Quarry South Area Fossil Hunting Guide
Denmark
Pay to digCoralsCrabsBryozoans
Faxe is the only Danish site where you can take a hammer to coral limestone inside a working quarry. The Faxe Formation preserves a Danian cold-water coral mound built by Dendrophyllia candelabrum and Faksephyllia faxoensis, and branch fragments of 2 to 10 centimeters sit in almost every block. Faxe is known internationally for its crab material, and Dromiopsis and Faxegalathea claws turn up in the loose rock on the pit floor. Access runs through Geomuseum Faxe. You register at reception, pay a day fee, and read the safety briefing before you walk down into Sydbruddet. Best for experienced collectors, and workable for families who accept a working industrial site and supervise children closely.
Read the full guide →
2
Stevns Klint Hoejerup k pg Boundary Fossils Fossil Hunting Guide
4660 Store Heddinge
Free collectingHøjerup ChurchBelemnitesSea urchin
Stevns Klint is the one Danish cliff with a place in the history of science. UNESCO listed it in 2014 for the dark fish clay band that marks the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, and an interpretive sign points the band out about 100 meters north of the beach access. The beach below Højerup Church produces belemnites of 3 to 12 centimeters, sea urchin tests and spines, brachiopods and bryozoan crusts. No tools are permitted, so this is surface collecting only and the cliff face is protected. Best for a first visit to Denmark, because the geology and the fossils are both within a short walk of the car.
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3
Mons Klint Beach Fossil Hunting Guide
Denmark
Free collectingMøns KlintBelemnitesSea urchin
Møns Klint puts 128 meters of Maastrichtian chalk directly above the beach, and Pleistocene ice tilted the originally flat layers into the steep angles you now see. Belemnites are the main find, and most visitors who spend an hour on the shore leave with at least one. Sea urchin spines are common, and complete tests of 2 to 4 centimeters appear after winter storms break up fresh cliff fall. The beach is free and open at all hours, no tools are permitted, and parking at the GeoCenter costs 45 DKK per day. The catch is the 497-step Maglevandstrappen, where the descent is manageable and the climb back is hard work.
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4
Fur Museum Dig Eocene Fish Insect Fossils Fossil Hunting Guide
7884 Fur
Pay to digFishInsectsPlant fossils
Fur Museum runs a supervised pit where you split moler along its volcanic ash layers and keep everything you find. The Fur Formation is an Early Eocene Lagerstätte, and complete fish of 5 to 15 centimeters are a routine result, with insect wing patterns as the prize. Staff hand out hammers, cold chisels and safety glasses at no extra charge, and they demonstrate the correct technique before you start. Admission is 80 DKK for adults and 40 DKK for children aged 6 to 17, and the ticket covers the exhibits and the pit. This is the easiest Danish site to bring young children to, because moler is soft and breaks without dangerous flying fragments.
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5
Gram Clay Pit Fossil Hunting Guide
Denmark
Pay to digShark TeethMegalodon
Gram is the only place in Denmark with a Late Miocene marine fauna, and shark teeth are what most visitors come for. The Gram Formation clay holds Otodus megalodon, Carcharias sand tigers, Cetorhinus basking sharks and several Carcharhinus species, and most people find a handful of teeth in a session. Museum Sønderjylland runs the pit from the museum on the rim and loans wellington boots, hand tools and trays free of charge with the entry ticket. Whale and seal bone, articulated fish and large shark teeth must be reported to staff before you leave, and the museum keeps material it needs for its collection. Best for anyone who wants teeth rather than chalk invertebrates, and for children who do not mind very wet clay.
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6
Find Campanian Fossils at Arnager Beach Bornholm Fossil Hunting Guide
Denmark
Free collectingSpongesAmmonitesEchinoids
Arnager on Bornholm exposes the only Campanian marine succession in Denmark, about ten million years older than the chalk at Stevns Klint and Møns Klint. The Arnager Limestone is built largely from siliceous sponge spicules, and pale sponge molds from fist-sized to dinner-plate-sized sit in the foreshore ledges. The Arnager Greensand below it yields Campanian ammonites, among them Scaphites and Hauericeras, usually as crushed or fragmentary molds. Productivity is moderate rather than abundant, and the site rewards a long visit and a good eye. Surface collecting and light hand-hammering of loose blocks are accepted practice, but the in-place ledges must not be chipped, because the whole exposure is only 10 to 15 meters thick.
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7
Rødvig Beach Fossil Hunting Guide
Zealand, Denmark
Free collectingBelemnitesSea UrchinsBrachiopods
Rødvig is the easiest entry point on the whole of Stevns Klint, which is what earns it a place in this list. The free parking lot at Rødvig Havn sits a few steps from the beach, and a level walk on sand and chalk gravel takes you north under cliffs that rise from about 5 meters to over 40. Belemnitella and Belemnella guards come out by the dozen on a typical visit, with Echinocorys and Tylocidaris urchins, brachiopods and bryozoan rubble alongside them. Collecting loose beach material is free and needs no permit, but the cliff face is part of the UNESCO site and must not be hammered or dug. Best for families and for anyone who wants no stairs, and the first kilometer north of the harbor is the most productive stretch.
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8
Stendalgraven Quarry Fur Island Fossil Hunting Guide
Denmark
Free collectingN/A
Stendalgraven is the free alternative to the Fur Museum pit, and the beach below the quarry receives fresh moler from the workings above. The quarry walls rise up to 30 meters in bands of pale moler and dark volcanic ash, stained red, yellow, green and blue where groundwater has moved minerals through the fractures. Cementsten, the hard carbonate nodules that hold three-dimensional fish and insects, accumulate on this beach in better supply than anywhere else on the island. You bring your own kit here, including a hammer of at least 1 kilogram, a cold chisel and mandatory safety glasses. This is an active industrial quarry, so collect at weekends when the machinery is idle, and stay on the viewpoint platform and the beach.
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Planning your visit

When to visit

The chalk beaches are best in late winter and early spring, after the storm season has broken up fresh cliff fall and scattered it across the foreshore. Complete sea urchin tests at Møns Klint and Stevns Klint turn up most often in that window. The museum sites run on opening hours rather than weather, and all three contract in winter. Fur Museum opens Tuesday to Sunday from April to October and weekends only from November to March, the Gram museum building drops to short afternoon hours in winter, and Geomuseum Faxe runs longer hours from April to September. Stendalgraven is the one site where the day of the week matters more than the season, because the quarry machinery works on weekdays.

What to bring

Footwear decides how well these visits go. Chalk beaches are strewn with rounded flint nodules that break to a glass edge, so wear boots or firm-soled shoes rather than sandals. Gram is wet Miocene clay and close to frictionless, which is why the museum lends wellington boots. Pack newspaper or bubble wrap for moler from Fur and Stendalgraven, because compression fossils in soft diatomite are fragile. Take your own 1 kilogram hammer, cold chisel and safety glasses to Stendalgraven, since there are no facilities at the quarry. Add water and sun protection for Faxe, where the pit has little shade and the white surface throws back a lot of glare.

Rules and access

Danish law lets the finder keep common fossils collected for personal use and reserves scientifically important specimens for the state. In practice the land manager applies that rule. Geomuseum Faxe asks to see large articulated crabs and complete coral heads, Museum Sønderjylland requires reports of whale and seal bone and large shark teeth at Gram, and Fur Museum advises you when a find is an exception. At Arnager, report intact ammonites and complete sponges to NaturBornholm or to GEUS. The two UNESCO sections at Stevns Klint and the cliffs at Møns Klint allow no tools and no work on the cliff face at all, and collecting there is restricted to loose material already on the beach.

Getting there

Copenhagen is the obvious base for the Zealand sites. Stevns Klint at Højerup and Rødvig are both about 60 to 65 kilometers south of the city, Faxe is about 70 kilometers, and Møns Klint is 120 kilometers by road through Vordingborg and over the bridge to Møn. Trains reach Køge and Rødvig, with local buses onward to Faxe and Højerup, though bus frequency is limited. The two northern sites take a long drive. Fur Museum and Stendalgraven are both on Fur island, roughly 4 hours from Copenhagen via Skive and the Branden ferry, which runs every 20 minutes around the clock. Gram sits in southern Jutland on Route 24 between Haderslev and Ribe, and Arnager needs the Køge to Rønne ferry or a 35-minute flight to Bornholm Airport.

Denmark has more documented sites than the eight ranked above. Browse the full index of Danish fossil sites for the complete list, including the locations that did not make this guide.

Frequently asked questions

Can you keep the fossils you find in Denmark?: Common fossils collected for personal use are yours to keep. Danish law reserves scientifically important specimens for the state, and the managed sites apply that rule through their own staff. Geomuseum Faxe asks to see large articulated crabs and complete coral heads before you leave Sydbruddet. Museum Sønderjylland requires that whale and seal bone, articulated fish and large shark teeth from the Gram clay pit are reported at the pit. Fur Museum lets you keep everything you find and tells you if a specimen is an exception. At Arnager, report intact ammonites, articulated vertebrate material and complete sponges to NaturBornholm in Aakirkeby or to the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS).
Which Danish fossil sites are free and which charge a fee?: Five of the eight sites in this guide are free: Stevns Klint at Højerup, Møns Klint beach, Arnager Beach on Bornholm, Rødvig Beach and the beach below Stendalgraven quarry. Three charge. Faxe Quarry takes a day fee at the Geomuseum Faxe reception, Fur Museum charges 80 DKK for adults and 40 DKK for children aged 6 to 17, and Gram Clay Pit is included in standard museum admission with no extra collecting fee. Parking at GeoCenter Møns Klint costs 45 DKK per day even though the beach itself is free.
Can you use a hammer at Danish fossil sites?: It depends on the site, and the protected chalk cliffs are the strict case. No tools are permitted at Stevns Klint or at Møns Klint. You collect loose surface material at both, and hammering or digging into the cliff face is prohibited. Faxe, Fur Museum, Gram and Stendalgraven all allow tools. Faxe and Fur Museum make safety glasses mandatory while you hammer, and Fur Museum and Gram lend the tools you need. At Arnager, light hand-hammering of loose foreshore blocks is accepted, but the in-place limestone ledges must be left alone.
Do tides matter when you collect fossils in Denmark?: The Baltic has almost no astronomical tide, so rising water is not the hazard it is on an Atlantic coast. Wind and air pressure set the water level instead. A strong westerly drops the water at Arnager and Rødvig and opens up more ledge and beach. An easterly or a southerly storm surge covers the same ground, sometimes quickly. Check a coastal forecast before you drive out, and stay off the lower ledges in an onshore wind.
Which Danish site is best for a first visit with children?: Fur Museum. The collecting pit has stable walls and a level floor, the moler is soft, and it splits without dangerous flying fragments. Staff provide the tools and the safety glasses and identify what you find. Rødvig Beach is the best free option for families, because the walk from the parking lot is level and belemnites are abundant on the foreshore. Møns Klint is harder with young children, because the only direct route down is a 497-step staircase.
What is the fish clay at Stevns Klint?: The fish clay is a dark clay band a few centimeters thick that separates white Late Cretaceous chalk below from gray Paleocene limestone above. It contains iridium at 30 to 160 times normal crustal levels, plus shocked quartz grains and microtektites, which are all products of a large asteroid impact. The Alvarez team used the iridium anomaly here in 1980 as evidence for the impact hypothesis, and UNESCO listed the cliff in 2014. An interpretive sign marks the band about 100 meters north of the main beach access at Højerup. You cannot collect from the cliff face, but you can examine and photograph the band from a safe distance.

Recommended resources

Geomuseum Faxe · Registration, day fee, safety briefing and opening hours for the Sydbruddet collecting area at Faxe Quarry. Check it on the day, because the pit closes on short notice for blasting or weather.
Fur Museum · Admission, seasonal hours and the supervised moler pit on Fur island, plus identification help for Fur Formation fish, insects and plants.
Museum Sønderjylland · Runs Gram Lergrav Palæontologi, the museum and public digging area at the Gram clay pit, and holds the Miocene whale and megalodon collections from the site.
GeoCenter Møns Klint · The access point at the top of Møns Klint, with the staircase down to the beach, parking and guided fossil tours in summer.
Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) · The national geological survey, and the source behind the Danian limestone at Faxe, the Stevns Klint boundary section, the Miocene of Jutland and the Cretaceous of Bornholm.
UNESCO World Heritage Centre: Stevns Klint · The 2014 World Heritage listing for Stevns Klint, and the reasons UNESCO gave for the designation.