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: 11:25am – 2:25pm
Leave the beach by 2:25pm — 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.
28° · overcast · Low tide: 1:25pm (0.8 m) · Wind up to 26 km/h · Waves 0.6 m
Safe window: 12:10pm – 3:10pm
Leave the beach by 3:10pm — 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 0.8 m low tide falls mid-afternoon.
29° · overcast · Low tide: 2:01am (0.7 m), 2:10pm (0.8 m) · Wind up to 21 km/h · Waves 0.5 m
Safe window: 12:54pm – 3:54pm
Leave the beach by 3:54pm — 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.
27° · clear · Low tide: 2:45am (0.7 m), 2:54pm (0.8 m) · Wind up to 17 km/h · Waves 0.3 m
Safe window: 1:39pm – 4:39pm
Leave the beach by 4:39pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls mid-afternoon, though it is not an especially big one.
25° · mostly clear · Low tide: 3:29am (0.8 m), 3:39pm (0.9 m) · Wind up to 12 km/h · Waves 0.3 m
Safe window: 4:39am – 5:13am
Leave the beach by 5:13am — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls first thing, though it is not an especially big one. Daylight cuts the collecting window to under 45 minutes, so don't plan a long session.
24° · drizzle · Low tide: 4:13am (0.9 m), 4:24pm (1.1 m) · Wind up to 11 km/h · Waves 0.4 m
Safe window: 4:40am – 5:56am
Leave the beach by 5:56am — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls first thing, though it is not an especially big one. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
27° · clear · Low tide: 4:56am (1.0 m), 5:10pm (1.3 m) · Wind up to 9 km/h · Waves 0.3 m
Safe window: 4:41am – 6:40am
Leave the beach by 6:40am — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls first thing, though it is not an especially big one. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
25° · clear · Low tide: 5:40am (1.2 m), 5:56pm (1.5 m) · Wind up to 15 km/h · Waves 0.2 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