Forget the dusty glass cases inside; head straight for the gravel pits. You keep every shark tooth or bone fragment you unearth, but prep for two hours of actual manual labor. Wear clothes you do not mind ruining and shoes that survive thick, wet silt. Skip the indoor gallery entirely. Bring your own sturdy trowel and a gallon of water, because the sun hits hard. Expect mud, mess, and actual results if you put in work.
Spending time at these gravel pits requires shifting your mindset away from passive museum touring and toward active excavation. This is a gritty, utilitarian operation where the quality of your finds depends almost entirely on the effort applied to sifting through heavy sediment. Unlike traditional institutions that shield relics behind impenetrable glass, this location encourages direct tactile engagement with prehistoric material. If you genuinely want to walk away with shark teeth, belemnites, or bone fragments that you personally liberated from the clay, this is the environment for such a task. Prepare for significant manual exertion.
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Bringing a sturdy, sharpened garden trowel and a stiff-bristled brush significantly improves your retrieval rate compared to using basic plastic tools provided on site, as the compacted clay requires genuine leverage.
Heavy rain turns the excavation pits into a difficult slurry that makes identifying small shark teeth nearly impossible, so check local weather patterns for the Peterborough area before committing to a long drive.
Two hours of focused, repetitive sifting is the sweet spot for most visitors; anything less often results in empty hands, while staying longer than three hours usually leads to severe physical fatigue.
Skip the paid guide services for the outdoor pits unless you are a complete novice, as the best strategy involves locating the darker, damp layers of sediment and working those areas patiently alone.
Use the gallon of water you bring to rinse your finds inside a mesh sieve before leaving the pits, as the dried silt hides the distinctive jagged edges of shark teeth and fossils.