Charmouth Beach
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.