I gave up my job to be a fossil hunter ...now I earn £40k a year from my hobby

A FOSSIL hunter who quit his engineer’s job now makes a £40,000 a year living from finding relics.

- Izzy Hawksworth

Mark Kemp began looking for fossils with friends 15 years ago, having collected some as a child. Then three years ago he turned his hobby into a moneyspinner.

His income comes mainly from guided walks, where he helps people find the petrified remains, and fossil preparation where he cleans them for other collectors.

Mark, 38, said: "I’m always outdoors - my commute now is literally to the beach and the full Yorkshire coast is my office. I love being outdoors with nature and there's loads of wildlife that I get to see and fossils are absolutely incredible.

"My biggest joy is taking the fossils home and cleaning them - they have been locked in time for hundreds of millions of years and then I slowly reveal what is inside the rocks.