Lyme Regis Museums

(Lyme Regis, Dorset, England, UK)

The Lyme Regis Philpot Museum is an excellent award-winning attraction and stands in the very centre of the town, alongside the sea wall. Housed within a characterful Grade II listed building, the Philpot Museum remembers the life of local Lyme Regis paleontologist Mary Anning.

Born on this very spot in 1799, Mary Anning was responsible for finding many spectacular and important fossils in this area, along the famed Jurassic Coast. Often referred to as the Lyme Regis Museum, the Philpot Museum remembers Mary Anning's most impressive findings, which include the complete skeletons of an ichthyosaur and a plesiosaur, both of which were found some 200 years ago and suddenly catapulted her into the world of famous fossil hunters.

Philpot Museum

Address: Bridge Street, Lyme Regis, Dorset, DT7 3QA, England, UK
Tel: +44 01297 443370
As well as housing extensive information about Lyme Regis's most renowned fossil hunter, there is more to the Philpot Museum than just its Mary Anning memorabilia. Onsite there is also information about local history, the landslides of the Undercliff, the 18th-century rum and tobacco smuggling, and the various writers who have found the allure of Lyme Regis quite hard to resist, such as both Beatrix Potter and Jane Austen. The Philpot Museum is run almost entirely by volunteers and has recently been completely renovated.
Open hours: mid-April to October, Monday to Saturday - 10:00 to 17:00, Sunday - 11:00 to 17:00; November to mid-April, Wednesday to Sunday - 11:00 to 16:00
Admission: charge, discounts for children

Dinosaurland Fossil Museum

Address: Coombe Street, Lyme Regis, Dorset, DT7 3PY, England, UK
Tel: +44 01297 443541
Fossils of all shapes and sizes are displayed at the town's popular Dinosaurland Fossil Museum, which is a privately managed attraction just off Church Street. The majority of the ground floor encompasses the main fossil collection, where you can enjoy innumerable ammonites and fish, as well as an awesome ichthyosaur. In the Animal Room, skeletons and shells clearly illustrate the process of evolution, while upstairs is the Time Gallery, where you can learn more about dinosaurs, with good reconstructions of various raptors and similar prehistoric creatures. If your day's fossil hunting hasn't gone too well, you may like to purchase a souvenir at the fossil shop, where there are literally hundreds of different fossils to choose between. It has been known for parents to purchase an inexpensive ammonite fossil and then carefully hide it on the beach, so that their children will be delighted when they discover it for themselves. However, if you like this idea, be sure that you remember where you bury it!
Open hours: daily - 10:00 to 17:00, reduced hours between November and February
Admission: charge, discounts for children