Monmouth Beach is a pebble and rock beach stretching approximately westwards from the harbour at

Lyme Regis Lyme Regis is a town in west Dorset, England, west of Dorchester and east of Exeter. Sometimes dubbed the "Pearl of Dorset", it lies by the English Channel at the Dorset–Devon border. It has noted fossils in cliffs and beaches on the Herita ...

West Dorset West Dorset was a local government district in Dorset, England. Its council was based in Dorchester. The district was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, and was a merger of the boroughs of Bridport, Dorchester and ...

Pinhay Bay Pinhay Bay is a bay in Devon, on the south coast of England, about southwest of Lyme Regis and about east of Seaton. The bay receives its name from the hamlet of Pinhay which is situated slightly inland. Approximately further west, toward ...

East Devon East Devon is a Non-metropolitan district, local government district in Devon, England. Its council has been based in Honiton since February 2019, and the largest town is Exmouth (with a population of 34,432 at the time of the 2011 census). ...

. It is part of the

Jurassic Coast The Jurassic Coast is a World Heritage Site on the English Channel coast of southern England. It stretches from Exmouth in East Devon to Studland Bay in Dorset, a distance of about , and was inscribed on the World Heritage List in mid-December ...

, situated below

Ware Cliffs Ware Cliffs are a set of long cliffs which stretch westwards from the town of Lyme Regis in Dorset to the Ware hamlet in the East Devon district of Devon, England. They are situated near Pinhay Bay and their highest point is the Black Ven, whi ...

, and includes Poker's Pool, Virtle Rock and Chippel Bay. Virtle Rock is the farthest

islet An islet is a very small, often unnamed island. Most definitions are not precise, but some suggest that an islet has little or no vegetation and cannot support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/or hard coral; may be permanent ...

from the coast in Poker's Pool. The name derives from the landing here of

Duke of Monmouth Duke is a male title either of a monarch ruling over a duchy, or of a member of royalty, or nobility. As rulers, dukes are ranked below emperors, kings, grand princes, grand dukes, and sovereign princes. As royalty or nobility, they are ranked ...

in 1685 during his attempt to take the crown from

King James II James VII and II (14 October 1633 16 September 1701) was King of England and King of Ireland as James II, and King of Scotland as James VII from the death of his elder brother, Charles II, on 6 February 1685. He was deposed in the Glorious Re ...

. Following the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth, twelve locals were hanged on the beach on the order of the notorious "Hanging Judge" Jeffreys.

Fossils

Monmouth Beach is now owned by the

National Trust The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...

, and is very popular with

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

hunters, as

ammonites Ammonoids are a group of extinct marine mollusc animals in the subclass Ammonoidea of the class Cephalopoda. These molluscs, commonly referred to as ammonites, are more closely related to living coleoids (i.e., octopuses, squid and cuttlefish) ...

belemnites Belemnites may refer to: *Belemnitida Belemnitida (or the belemnite) is an extinct order of squid-like cephalopods that existed from the Late Triassic to Late Cretaceous. Unlike squid, belemnites had an internal skeleton that made up the cone. ...

, plant fossils and even a few remains of Ichthyosaur vertebrae fossils have been found here. The cliffs are estimated to be 199-189 million years old.

External links

Monmouth Beach Website

Lyme Regis Website

The National Trust Jurassic Coast Webpage
{{Jurassic Coast Beaches of Dorset National Trust properties in Dorset Jurassic Coast Lyme Regis