Town in Dorset, England

Lyme Regis

A Dorset seaside town where a girl's fossil hunting changed science, and a curved harbour wall starred in both Jane Austen and Meryl Streep.

Key information

County: Dorset
Nation: England
Population: About 3,700 (2011 Census)
Known for: Fossils, the Cobb harbour wall, Mary Anning, Jurassic Coast views
Famous people: Mary Anning, John Fowles, Robert Blake

About Lyme Regis

The girl who survived lightning and found a sea dragon

Mary Anning was born in Lyme Regis in 1799, and the stories about her start early. As a baby she was said to have survived a lightning strike that killed the women holding her. Whatever the details, she grew up to become one of the most important fossil hunters in history. Her father, a cabinetmaker, sold curiosities from the crumbling blue lias cliffs to tourists. After his death the family relied on the trade. Around 1811, her brother Joseph spotted a skull in the cliffs, and Mary, then about twelve, dug out the rest of the ichthyosaur. In 1823 she unearthed a plesiosaur skeleton, and in 1828 she found a British pterosaur. She worked on the beach beneath landslip-prone cliffs, with a dog and a hammer. Gentlemen scholars bought her finds and often took the credit. Today Lyme Regis Museum stands near the site of her family home. Its displays are among the best places to see what she found.

Why a harbour wall is the town's real celebrity

The Cobb is a great curving stone arm that shelters the harbour, and it has been there in some form since at least the 13th century. It is the image on most Lyme Regis postcards. It is also a literary star. In Jane Austen's Persuasion, Louisa Musgrove jumps from the steps known as Granny's Teeth and is knocked senseless. Austen herself visited Lyme in 1803 and 1804, and she knew what she was writing about. Later, John Fowles set the opening of The French Lieutenant's Woman on the Cobb, with a lone figure staring out to sea. The 1981 film starred Meryl Streep wrapped in a dark cloak on the very same stones, and it fixed the image for a generation. Fowles lived in the town and served as curator of the museum from 1979 to 1988.

A royal name and a very busy summer in 1685

Edward I granted Lyme its charter in 1284, which is where 'Regis' (the king's) comes from. For centuries it was a working port, trading in cloth, fish and cargo that moved along the English Channel. In 1644, during the Civil War, the Parliamentarian town held out for around eight weeks against Prince Maurice's Royalist army. Robert Blake, who later became one of England's great admirals, helped defend it. In June 1685 the Duke of Monmouth landed on the beach to the west of the town to launch his rebellion against James II. It ended in defeat at Sedgemoor, and the beach is still called Monmouth Beach.

The beach where the cliffs give things up

Lyme Regis lies on the Jurassic Coast close to Dorset's western border. The World Heritage Site, inscribed in 2001, runs from Exmouth in East Devon to Studland in Dorset. The cliffs here are soft clay and limestone, and the sea constantly strips them. That is why fossils keep turning up. Ammonites, the coiled shells that look like stone snails, are everywhere on the shoreline, and the town has made them its emblem. Visitors can join guided fossil walks, and the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival brings talks, stalls and family activities to the town, with recent editions held in June. The cliffs are unstable, so local advice is always to stay clear of the bases and check the tide.

Crab sandwiches, gigs and a town mill

Lyme Bay brings in crab, lobster and scallops, and you can expect to find them on the harbour menus. Fish and chips on the Cobb, with gulls circling, is a fixture of the summer. The Town Mill, a working watermill on the River Lym, grinds flour and has long been a centre of the town's craft scene, with a brewery and gallery nearby. On the water, Lyme Regis is a gig-rowing town. Crews race long wooden pilot gigs, a sport more usually associated with Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. Sailing dinghies fill the bay in summer, and the town's football club plays on the hillside above.