4 Best Sights in The South, England

Located in a former church, this compact private museum run by a paleontologist has an excellent collection of local fossils with more than 16,000 specimens dating back 200 million years. It also provides information on regional geology, how fossils develop, and guided fossil-hunting walks. There are more fossils for sale in the shop on the ground floor along with minerals.

This small but child-friendly aquarium has the usual up-close look at maritime creatures, from spider crabs to fish found in nearby Lyme Bay. Children love hand-feeding the gray mullets and getting up-close to starfish, lobsters, and crabs.

A gabled and turreted Edwardian building on the site of fossilist Mary Anning's former home, this lively museum is devoted to the town's maritime and domestic history, geology, local artists, writers (John Fowles was an honorary curator for a decade), and, of course, Anning herself and her fossils. The museum also leads fossil-hunting and local history walks throughout the year. Anning was immortalized in the 2020 film Ammonite, shot largely in the town.

Lyme Regis is famous for its curving stone harbor breakwater, the Cobb, built by King Edward I in the 13th century to improve the harbor. The Duke of Monmouth landed here in 1685 during his ill-fated attempt to overthrow his uncle, James II, and the Cobb figured prominently in the movie of John Fowles's novel The French Lieutenant's Woman, as well as in the 1995 film version of Jane Austen's Persuasion. There's a sweeping coastal view to Chesil Beach to the east.