Lyme Regis
You don’t need an expert eye to discover fossil remains here. Stride across Monmouth Beach and you’ll spot giant ammonites anchored to the shoreline just waiting to be admired. But there is nothing quite like turning over a rock to discover a perfectly formed fossil and knowing you are the first person on earth to see this echo of a life from many millions of years ago.
Mary Anning (1799-1847) was just 12 years old when she discovered the first English ichthyosaur on the shores near Lyme Regis. Searching the blue lias and Charmouth mudstone cliffs along this stretch of the coast she also discovered plesiosaur and pterosaur skeletons and made huge contributions to our understanding of prehistoric life, although she was given little credit for her work during her lifetime.
It is such an important area because this is where the Triassic rocks of East Devon give way to the Jurassic beds of blue lias – a mixture of limestone and shale layers. These rocks were deposited in a tropical sea rich in marine life, so you could stumble across anything from fish and insect to the remains of dinosaur and ichthyosaur. New discoveries are still being made today and this area has been described as one of the best fossil hunting sites in the world.