Charmouth
Charmouth is a village and civil parish in west Dorset, England.
The village is situated on the mouth of the River Char, around 1.5 miles (2 km) north-east of Lyme Regis. Dorset County Council estimated that in 2013 the population of the civil parish was 1,310. In the 2011 census the population of the parish, combined with the small parish of Catherston Leweston to the north, was 1,352.
Getting to Charmouth
The nearest train station is Axminster, which is on the route from London Waterloo to Exeter. There is also a good bus service (X53) along the Jurassic Coast.
Worth seeing
- 01Golden Cap
Golden Cap Estate, Morcombelake, Bridport, Dorset (See website for directions), goldencap@nationaltrust.org.uk.
- 02Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre
Small free museum containing many impressive fossil specimens found locally, along with educational videos, exhibits and events relating to local geology and fossil-hunting.
Things to do
Fossil hunting. in front of the cliffs by the beach. There are lots of fossilised ammonites in the sediment layers in the cliffs, and as weathering occurs, the cliffs are eroded and the fossils are left on the beach. The best time to go hunting is in Spring, when the winter's storms have exposed many fossils.
Text adapted from Wikipedia and Wikivoyage, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photograph: Partonez (see Commons), Wikimedia Commons.