Clacton Cliffs and Foreshore

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox SSSI

|image=File:Clacton Cliffs and Foreshore - golf club area 5.jpg

|image_caption=The site in Clacton Golf Course

|name= Clacton Cliffs and Foreshore

|aos= Essex

|interest= Geological

|gridref={{gbmappingsmall|TM 146128}}
{{gbmappingsmall|TM 156134}}
{{gbmappingsmall|TM 173142}}

|area= 26.1 hectares

|notifydate=1986

|map=[http://magic.defra.gov.uk/MagicMap.aspx?startTopic=Designations&activelayer=sssiIndex&query=HYPERLINK%3D%271003908%27 Magic Map]

}}

Clacton Cliffs and Foreshore is a {{convert|26.1|hectare|acre|adj=on}} geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Clacton-on-Sea in Essex.{{cite web|url=http://www.sssi.naturalengland.org.uk/citation/citation_photo/1003908.pdf|title=Clacton Cliffs and Foreshore citation|series=Sites of Special Scientific Interest|publisher=Natural England|accessdate=8 June 2016|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304044902/http://www.sssi.naturalengland.org.uk/citation/citation_photo/1003908.pdf|archivedate=4 March 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://magic.defra.gov.uk/MagicMap.aspx?startTopic=Designations&activelayer=sssiIndex&query=HYPERLINK%3D%271003908%27 |title=Map of Clacton Cliffs and Foreshore|series= Sites of Special Scientific Interest|publisher=Natural England|accessdate= 8 June 2016}} It is a Geological Conservation Review site.{{cite web|url= http://jncc.defra.gov.uk/default.aspx?page=4174&gcr=1179 |title= Clacton (Quaternary of the Thames) |publisher=Joint Nature Conservation Committee|accessdate= 8 June 2016}}

This site is described by Natural England as "one of the most important Pleistocene interglacial deposits in Britain". It dates to the warm Hoxnian Stage around 400,000 years ago. Flint tools found there in the early twentieth century have made it the type site for the Clactonian, a core-and-flake industry of homo erectus, although paleontologists disagree whether it is really a separate industry from the Acheulian.{{cite book|title=The British Palaeolithic: Human Societies at the Edge of the Pleistocene World|first1=Paul|last1=Pettit|first2=Mark|last2=White|publisher=Routledge|year=2012|pages=172–92|location=Abingdon, UK|isbn=978-0-415-67455-3}}

The site is in three separate areas. Two are on the shoreline footpath, but no geology is visible. The third is in the south-west corner of Clacton Golf Course, and there is no public access.