This UK seaside city is a fossil hunter’s paradise

Were you to dig beneath Lyme Regis’ bunting-slung streets, you’d hit a geological marvel: the Blue Lias. This huge sequence of limestone and shale layers, shaped throughout the Mesozoic period some 200 million years in the past, reveals fossils because it erodes, making the city considered one of Europe’s most necessary paleontological centres. It’s a badge locals put on proudly: you’ll discover a weather-beaten statue of celebrated fossil hunter Mary Anning overlooking Church Cliff Beach. In 1823, whereas wandering Lyme Regis’s shoreline, she unearthed the world’s first full skeleton of a Plesiosaurus and, practically two centuries after her dying, the city stays a magnet for excavators.

Where ought to I start?

The major strip is Front Beach, which fringes the promenade with its wash of pastel huts. On its western finish, you’ll discover Shoreline Sauna, whose wood-fired, Nordic-style saunas sit proper on the sand. Close by is the Cobb: a man-made harbour featured within the novel Persuasion by Lyme Regis habitué Jane Austen. It leads off Monmouth Beach, a quieter, pebbled stretch standard amongst fossil hunters scouring for ammonites — these distinctive, spiralled molluscs which have turn out to be a logo of the city. You can be taught extra about Lyme Regis’s prehistoric residents on the Dinosaurland Fossil Museum, residence to a set of greater than 30,000 specimens, together with a dolphin-like ichthyosaur unearthed close by and the cranium of an enormous, carnivorous mosasaur. The museum additionally organises fossil walks run by native palaeontologists, with the prospect to gather fossilised bullet-shaped belemnites — the shells of squid-like creatures that when swam the oceans.

What else is there past the fossils?

The Cobb is the launch level for Lyme Rib Rides, whose sightseeing cruises zip alongside the coast. Choose between the exhilarating, 20-minute ‘Lyme dash’ or the hour-long cruise that passes towering cliffs and secret coves. Otherwise, head up the steps linking Monmouth Beach with the South West Coast Path — a 630-mile path tracing this wave-lashed nook of England. Walk west for an hour and also you hit the Axmouth to Lyme Regis Undercliffs National Nature Reserve. The distinctive character of this seven-mile stretch of shoreline was shaped by a succession of landslides, yielding undulating bluffs and numerous woodland. Back in Lyme Regis, go to the Town Mill: the location dates again to 1340 and its Seventeenth-century watermill has been painstakingly restored by volunteers. It’s turn out to be a house to native companies together with artwork studios, a vintage-inspired boutique and a potter’s workshop, plus Lyme Regis Brewery, whose craft beers go down a deal with within the courtyard.

Where’s good for meals?

Start your day at Kiosk, on Front Beach, serving sausage- or halloumi-stuffed breakfast bagels which might be greatest loved whereas reclining on a sunlounger on the shingle. For lunch or dinner, there’s Sandro’s, a dinky, family-run operation masterminded by ex-River Cottage chef Alessandro Strillozzi. The menu is seasonal, with British elements going into Italian-style dishes like venison with polenta.

Atop the hill overlooking Lyme Bay, you’ll discover Rockfish, from sustainable fishing advocate and TV chef Mitch Tonks. Guests select from an inventory of every day catches from close by Brixham Fish Market and dine to views of Lyme Regis’s historic centre. Then there’s Tom’s, an AA Rosette bistro whose fish board — piled with lobster, scallops, crab croquettes, pearl oysters and prawns — is famous.