Dorset · Directions ↗
Landslides regularly reshape this coast — your route back may not look like the map. Check your return route on the way out.
Today at Lyme Regis — East Cliff / Black Ven
Quiet dayWhy: Low tide falls at lunchtime, though it is not an especially big one. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
Safe window: 10:24am – 1:24pm
Leave the beach by 1:24pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls at lunchtime, though it is not an especially big one. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
9° · rain · 10mm rain · Low tide: 12:03am (0.8 m), 12:24pm (0.9 m) · Wind up to 20 km/h · Waves 1.4 m
Safe window: 10:55am – 1:55pm
Leave the beach by 1:55pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls at lunchtime, though it is not an especially big one. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
9° · overcast · 4mm rain · Low tide: 12:33am (0.8 m), 12:55pm (0.9 m) · Wind up to 21 km/h · Waves 1.1 m
Safe window: 11:28am – 2:28pm
Leave the beach by 2:28pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls at lunchtime, though it is not an especially big one. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
8° · clear · Low tide: 1:04am (0.9 m), 1:28pm (0.9 m) · Wind up to 24 km/h · Waves 1.0 m
Safe window: 12:02pm – 3:02pm
Leave the beach by 3:02pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls mid-afternoon, though it is not an especially big one. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
7° · clear · Low tide: 1:36am (1.0 m), 2:02pm (1.1 m) · Wind up to 14 km/h · Waves 0.6 m
Safe window: 12:39pm – 3:39pm
Leave the beach by 3:39pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls mid-afternoon, though it is not an especially big one.
9° · overcast · Low tide: 2:09am (1.2 m), 2:39pm (1.2 m) · Wind up to 10 km/h · Waves 0.8 m
Safe window: 1:21pm – 4:21pm
Leave the beach by 4:21pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls mid-afternoon, though it is not an especially big one.
12° · drizzle · 11mm rain · Low tide: 2:45am (1.4 m), 3:21pm (1.4 m) · Wind up to 16 km/h · Waves 0.7 m
Safe window: 2:09pm – 5:02pm
Leave the beach by 5:02pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls mid-afternoon, though it is not an especially big one. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
13° · mostly clear · 3mm rain · Low tide: 3:25am (1.6 m), 4:09pm (1.6 m) · Wind up to 25 km/h · Waves 1.1 m
Hunt the fresh slip aprons and tideline gravel between Lyme and Charmouth on a falling tide — after rain, Black Ven feeds new material onto the beach almost daily. Keep to the lower beach: everything good washes down to you.
Ammonites show as coiled ridges in grey limestone, or as golden pyrite spirals the size of a coin. Belemnites are smooth amber-brown rods shaped like rifle bullets. Ichthyosaur vertebrae look like dark, shiny cotton reels. Free identification: the Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre identifies finds in person and from emailed photos (charmouth.org).
This coast is a protected site (SSSI). What does that mean?
Allowed: Loose fossils from the beach and foreshore are yours to keep — collecting them here is positively encouraged, because the sea destroys what nobody saves.
Never allowed: Never dig or hammer into the cliffs, ledges or landslide material; fossils still in place must stay in place.
Important finds: Register scientifically important finds with the Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre under the West Dorset Fossil Collecting Code.
Rules can change — check locally before you collect.
Detailed location guide at UK Fossils →
Charmouth Road car park, Lyme Regis.
All facilities in Lyme Regis town; none on the beach itself.
East along the beach from the seafront, below Church Cliffs towards Black Ven.
This stretch regularly cuts people off — only walk it on a falling tide and turn back early. Black Ven is one of the most active mudslide complexes in Europe: never climb on the slumped mud.
Fossil Forecast