Whitby Jet actually started life as a type of tree, the Monkey Puzzle Tree to be precise! Over 150 million years ago, this family of tree was swept away by enormous flash floods and lodged in the sediment of the Liasic Sea, the area that would become Great Britain. Over millions of years, the compacted wood became fossilised and slowly transformed into the deep dark stone we know today.
Fossil evidence of this fascinating era is abundant and easily detected in the cliffs and beaches that adjourn Whitby to the North and South.