Porlock

A sequence of silts, peats and forest beds up to a maximum of 10m deep exists beneath Porlock Marsh and extends into the intertidal area where the lower parts of the sequence are visible at low tide. These deposits chart the changing sea level and environment and date from c, 6,700 cal BC. They represent episodes of salt marsh and lagoonal environments alternating with wet woodland and swamp as the influence of the sea fluctuated.

The breaching of the shingle ridge in 1996 has caused erosion of the silts under the former pasture of Porlock Marsh, revealing palaeochannels (former channels dissecting the earlier wetlands). In one of these, the partial remains of the skeleton of an aurochs of early Bronze Age date were excavated. They can be seen in the visitor centre in Porlock and exhibit some interesting pathology (healed fractured ribs and pelvis and an infected and un-healed broken rib). The upper fills of palaeochannels studied date to the Neolithic and Bronze Ages.

Erosion of the breach channel revealed medieval wooden posts of uncertain function and another isolated earlier medieval timber.

The stone fish weirs visible at low tide at Gore Point and east of Porlock Weir are undated but are likely to be Medieval in origin.