Lyme Regis

Lyme Regis is a small coastal town on the Dorset side of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site, where blue lias cliffs full of Jurassic fossils rise above a sheltered shingle and sand beach. Steep streets of pastel-painted cottages and Georgian houses tumble down to the seafront, lined with cafés, fossil shops and independent galleries.

The town's most famous landmark is the Cobb, a curving stone harbour wall first recorded in the 13th century and rebuilt in its present form in the 19th. It featured in Jane Austen's Persuasion and in John Fowles's The French Lieutenant's Woman, and remains a working harbour for small fishing boats and pleasure craft. The beach beside it is a popular family spot, with Marine Parade and the gardens above giving long views along the coast.

Lyme is best known internationally for its fossils. Mary Anning, who made pioneering discoveries of ichthyosaur and plesiosaur skeletons in the early 19th century, was born and worked here. Guided fossil walks set out from the beach, and the Lyme Regis Museum, built on the site of her home, tells the story of her life and the geology of the coast. The South West Coast Path heads west towards Charmouth and east towards the dramatic landslip of the Undercliff.