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
FairWhy: A recent south-westerly blow should have brought fresh cliff material onto the beach. An early-autumn blow like this restocks beaches after the quiet summer. Low tide falls mid-afternoon, though it is not an especially big one.
Safe window: 2:06pm – 5:06pm
Leave the beach by 5:06pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: A recent south-westerly blow should have brought fresh cliff material onto the beach. An early-autumn blow like this restocks beaches after the quiet summer. Low tide falls mid-afternoon, though it is not an especially big one.
20° · drizzle · 1mm rain · Low tide: 4:06pm (0.8 m) · Wind up to 29 km/h · Waves 1.3 m
Safe window: 2:51pm – 5:51pm
Leave the beach by 5:51pm — 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.
23° · mostly clear · Low tide: 4:27am (0.9 m), 4:51pm (1.1 m) · Wind up to 26 km/h · Waves 1.1 m
Safe window: 5:57am – 6:12am
Leave the beach by 6:12am — 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. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
21° · overcast · 2mm rain · Low tide: 5:12am (1.2 m), 5:43pm (1.3 m) · Wind up to 27 km/h · Waves 1.3 m
Safe window: 5:58am – 7:06am
Leave the beach by 7:06am — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls first thing, though it is not an especially big one.
20° · mostly clear · Low tide: 6:06am (1.5 m), 6:51pm (1.6 m) · Wind up to 10 km/h · Waves 0.5 m
Safe window: 6:00am – 8:19am
Leave the beach by 8:19am — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls first thing, though it is not an especially big one.
23° · clear · Low tide: 7:19am (1.7 m), 8:26pm (1.8 m) · Wind up to 24 km/h · Waves 0.6 m
Safe window: 8:19pm – 8:20pm
Leave the beach by 8:20pm — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls towards evening, though it is not an especially big one. Daylight cuts the collecting window to under 45 minutes, so don't plan a long session. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
21° · mostly clear · Low tide: 8:59am (1.8 m), 10:19pm (1.7 m) · Wind up to 21 km/h · Waves 0.5 m
Safe window: 8:38am – 11:38am
Leave the beach by 11:38am — the tide will cut off your route back.
Why: Low tide falls mid-morning, though it is not an especially big one. No recent storms, so expect a picked-over beach.
18° · overcast · 5mm rain · Low tide: 10:38am (1.7 m), 11:37pm (1.4 m) · Wind up to 37 km/h · Waves 2.4 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