Ancient Footprints on Formby beach

I had heard about ancient footprints of our ancestors being discovered on Formby beach back in the 1950’s. I was fascinated by this discovery and wanted to learn more. So I booked on a ‘National Trust‘ guided tour to see the footprints for myself.

These ancient footprints discovered on the beach at Formby, have been proven to be around 5,000 to 7,000 years old by Carbon dating and other scientific dating processes. They are believed to be from a time when today’s beach used to be boggy marsh Land.

This ancient marsh layer is now being constantly uncovered by the tide, revealing the many footprints of ancient people and animals that once walked across the marsh, thousands of years ago.

Once uncovered, the footprints are visible for around 4 to 6 weeks, before being washed away again by the ebb and flow of the tide. This tidal action is continually revealing many new, unseen ancient footprints to replace those being washed away as more of the boggy marsh layer is revealed. This means that the quality of footprints found can vary day by day.

The interesting thing is, had I not been shown where, or what to look for on the informative ‘National Trust’ guided tour, I would not have given any of these ancient footprints a second glance.

Fascinating…

Further along the Sefton Coast, is more of our history: The ‘Star of Hope’ and ‘Atlantic’ Shipwrecks

The ever changing, ancient footprints on Formby beach. These images are a mix of human foot prints as well as animals, probably dear or horse hooves.