Beach in Dorset

Charmouth Beach on the Jurassic Coast of Dorset is the finest fossil hunting beach in Britain, a stretch of coast between the River Char and the dramatic Black Ven cliffs where the regular erosion of the Lower Jurassic Lias clays and limestone constantly releases new fossils onto the beach in a supply maintained by the relentless action of the sea on one of the most rapidly eroding sections of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site. The Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre provides expert guidance, organised fossil hunting walks and the identification service for the finds that visitors make on what is the most productive accessible fossil locality in England. The fossils found at Charmouth are primarily from the Lower Jurassic period approximately 185 million years ago and include ammonites of various species in sizes from a few millimetres to several metres across, belemnites, fish, plants and occasional ichthyosaurs. The ichthyosaur skeleton found by Mary Anning in 1811 on this coast, while attributed to Lyme Regis immediately to the west, came from the same geological formations that produce the Charmouth fossils, and the tradition of fossil collecting on this section of the coast is intimately connected with the founding of the science of palaeontology. The Heritage Coast Centre runs guided fossil hunting walks that provide the essential knowledge of where to look, what to look for and the safety considerations of walking below cliffs that are actively eroding, and the combination of the expert guidance and the genuine possibility of making a significant find makes Charmouth one of the most educational and most exciting beach experiences available in Britain.

Chesil Beach is one of the most remarkable natural coastal features in Britain, a 29-kilometre barrier beach of flint pebbles extending from West Bay near Bridport to the Isle of Portland, enclosing the tidal lagoon of the Fleet behind it in one of the finest examples of a tombolo formation in the world. The beach is part of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site and its geological significance as one of the most studied and most instructive examples of longshore drift and barrier beach formation in the British Isles makes it a site of international coastal geomorphological importance. The pebbles of Chesil Beach demonstrate a remarkable size sorting from west to east, the pebbles at the West Bay end being approximately pea-sized and increasing progressively to the size of a fist at the Portland end. This size gradient was used historically by local fishermen who could identify their position along the beach in fog simply by feeling the size of the pebbles underfoot, a practical navigational skill derived from understanding the natural process that sorted the sediment. The consistency of the gradient is explained by the mechanics of wave action which selectively moves different particle sizes to different positions along the beach. The Fleet lagoon behind the beach is one of the finest examples of a coastal lagoon in Britain, its sheltered waters supporting rare lagoonal invertebrates and the largest tern colony in Britain at Chesil Bank. The Abbotsbury Swannery, where a colony of mute swans has been managed since the medieval period, is one of the most unusual wildlife attractions on the south coast.

Lyme Regis on the Dorset coast is one of the most historically significant beach destinations in England, a small seaside town on the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site where the cliffs of the Charmouth Formation regularly produce one of the finest and most accessible fossil collecting opportunities in Britain. The town is famous as the home of Mary Anning, the self-taught nineteenth-century fossil hunter whose discoveries of ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs made fundamental contributions to the founding science of palaeontology. The fossils exposed by erosion of the Lower Jurassic cliffs include ammonites, belemnites, gryphaea oysters and occasional vertebrate remains, and the fossil hunters who work the beach at low tide after storms can find significant specimens without specialist knowledge. The Cobb, the great curved harbour wall protecting the town from westerly swells, is one of the most famous pieces of harbour engineering on the English coast, its literary associations including Jane Austen's Persuasion and John Fowles's The French Lieutenant's Woman making it one of the most culturally resonant pieces of coastal infrastructure in Britain.

Studland Bay on the Isle of Purbeck in Dorset is one of the finest beaches in southern England and one of the most ecologically significant coastal locations in Britain, a four-kilometre arc of golden sand backed by one of the largest surviving systems of sand dunes in the south of England and connected to heathland and woodland habitats of exceptional importance for wildlife. The beach is managed largely by the National Trust and forms part of the Dorset Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The beach itself divides naturally into distinct sections with different characters. The most accessible beach near the car parks at the northern end is popular with families and day-trippers during summer, while the more remote sections southward toward Old Harry Rocks see fewer visitors and more wildlife. The four-kilometre walk along the beach from the ferry slipway at Shell Bay to Studland village provides one of the most beautiful coastal walks in Dorset and passes through the complete range of beach and dune habitat. Behind the beach, the dune system represents one of the most complete sequences of dune development in Britain. Young mobile dunes near the beach give way to older, stabilised dunes further inland, which in turn grade into mature dune heath and then the ancient heathland of Studland and Godlingston Heath. This sequence of increasing ecological age and complexity supports an exceptional diversity of wildlife. Studland Bay is one of the very few locations in Britain where all six native reptile species can be found: sand lizards, smooth snakes, slow worms, common lizards, grass snakes and adders all inhabit different parts of the heath and dune system. The waters of the bay are equally remarkable. A colony of European seahorses, one of Britain's rarest marine species, lives in the eel-grass beds just offshore from the beach. The seahorse population at Studland has been studied and monitored for years and is considered one of the most significant populations in Britain. The bay was designated a Special Area of Conservation specifically to protect this colony and the important seagrass habitat on which it depends. The ferry from Sandbanks to Shell Bay provides a charming way of arriving at Studland from the Bournemouth side, saving a long inland detour and providing brief but excellent views across the mouth of Poole Harbour.