GCR locations for Somerset extracted from the GCR Database (part) 2019 No limitation on public access or constraints on use © Joint Nature Conservation Committee

Geological Conservation Review Sites

Many GCR sites are on private land: the listing of a site in these pages does not imply any right of public access. Prior consent for visits should always be obtained from the landowner and/or occupier via the relevant country conservation agency. For site visits, follow the Geologists’ Association Fieldwork Code

The Geological Conservation Review (GCR) is the register of known nationally and internationally important Earth science (geological and geomorphological) sites in Great Britain. The GCR underpins designation of Earth science features in Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSIs). The majority of GCR sites, therefore, now have statutory protection through designation as notified features in SSSIs.

Some GCR sites, however, remain unnotified and are known as unnotified GCR sites. National Park Authorities and some Local Authorities treat these as candidate SSSIs and afford them the same protection as SSSIs.

Some unnotified GCR sites are also Local Geological Sites (LGS), and as such they are afforded levels of protection appropriate to locally important sites (though they are, themselves, considered to be of national or international importance).

The remaining unnotified GCR sites have no statutory protection, although they are considered to be sites of national or international importance.

Initially developed between 1977 and 1990, the GCR network is periodically updated and this dataset is subject to change.

SSSI boundaries published by Natural England are available under the Open Government licence v3.0 © Crown Copyright 2019

Boundaries of GCR sites typically lie within but are often not co-incident with SSSI boundaries.

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