Locality · Voluntary code of conduct; beach collecting

Lyme Regis and Charmouth

Dorset, Dorset, United Kingdom

Lyme Regis and Charmouth on Dorset's Jurassic Coast are Mary Anning's beaches, where the Blue Lias and Charmouth Mudstone drop ammonites, belemnites, crinoid stems and occasionally ichthyosaur bone onto the shore after every winter storm. Collecting is legal under a voluntary code that records important finds, and beach fossils are the finder's to keep and sell. Winter, after storms and at low spring tides, is the productive time; summer collecting is for children and pyrite ammonites.

Country	United Kingdom
State / province	Dorset
County	Dorset
Land manager / status	Various: National Trust, Charmouth Parish, private; World Heritage Site
Access	Public beaches; collect at low tide; Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre runs guided walks
Formations	Blue Lias Formation
What is found	Promicroceras, Arnioceras, Asteroceras, Ichthyosaurus, Pentacrinites, Dapedium, belemnites
Coordinates (public site)	50.73, -2.91

Rules

The West Dorset Fossil Collecting Code allows collecting from the beach and loose cliff falls but not digging into the cliffs; important finds should be recorded with the Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre's scheme, which registers ownership and asks that scientifically important specimens be offered to museums. Finds otherwise belong to the finder and may be sold. Cliffs are unstable; do not collect beneath them after rain.

Source: https://www.charmouth.org/chcc/fossil-collecting/ (checked 2026-09-16).

Elsewhere

Collecting rules (official page)

Cite this article

Stratum Study. "Lyme Regis and Charmouth" (Locality). Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19. https://stratum.black/study/localities/lyme-regis-and-charmouth. Accessed 2026-09-20.

BibTeX · CSL-JSON

@misc{stratum-lyme-regis-and-charmouth,
  title        = {Lyme Regis and Charmouth},
  author       = {{Stratum Study}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://stratum.black/study/localities/lyme-regis-and-charmouth}},
  year         = {2026},
  note         = {Locality article, Stratum Study pack 2026.09, as of 2026-09-19; sources: stratum, commons. Accessed 2026-09-20.}
}

Citations carry the pack version and the article's as-of date so they resolve to the same text later. The facts themselves belong to the sources listed below; cite those for the science.

Rules

Formations

Elsewhere