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
FairBig tide today (spring tide) — more beach exposed, but it comes back in fast.
Why: A big 0.7 m low tide falls at lunchtime.
Safe window: 11:39am – 2:39pm
Leave the beach by 2:39pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Big tide today (spring tide) — more beach exposed, but it comes back in fast.
Why: A big 0.7 m low tide falls at lunchtime.
19° · overcast · Low tide: 1:28am (0.6 m), 1:39pm (0.7 m) · Wind up to 25 km/h · Waves 0.7 m
Safe window: 12:12pm – 3:12pm
Leave the beach by 3:12pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Big tide today (spring tide) — more beach exposed, but it comes back in fast.
Why: A big 0.6 m low tide falls mid-afternoon.
22° · drizzle · Low tide: 1:59am (0.6 m), 2:12pm (0.6 m) · Wind up to 19 km/h · Waves 0.7 m
Safe window: 12:45pm – 3:45pm
Leave the beach by 3:45pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Big tide today (spring tide) — more beach exposed, but it comes back in fast.
Why: A big 0.7 m low tide falls mid-afternoon.
23° · overcast · Low tide: 2:31am (0.6 m), 2:45pm (0.7 m) · Wind up to 15 km/h · Waves 0.5 m
Safe window: 1:19pm – 4:19pm
Leave the beach by 4:19pm — 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.
20° · clear · Low tide: 3:03am (0.7 m), 3:19pm (0.8 m) · Wind up to 21 km/h · Waves 0.5 m
Safe window: 1:54pm – 4:54pm
Leave the beach by 4:54pm — 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.
18° · mostly clear · Low tide: 3:35am (0.9 m), 3:54pm (1.0 m) · Wind up to 21 km/h · Waves 0.5 m
Safe window: 2:30pm – 5:30pm
Leave the beach by 5:30pm — 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.
18° · mostly clear · Low tide: 4:09am (1.1 m), 4:30pm (1.3 m) · Wind up to 26 km/h · Waves 1.1 m
Safe window: 3:10pm – 6:10pm
Leave the beach by 6:10pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls towards evening, though it is not an especially big one. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
17° · drizzle · Low tide: 4:43am (1.4 m), 5:10pm (1.6 m) · Wind up to 18 km/h · Waves 0.8 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