Jurassic Coast Day 3

 

Thursday 2nd July 2026

Our exploring took us east of Weymouth today.  First stop was the Salty Pig Cafe for a coffee before our walk out along the cliffs to Old Harry’s Rocks. The cliffs of Old Harry were attached to the coastline and in 1896 his “first wife” collapsed to leave only a stump. The weathering process has continued and a number of white chalky needles and arches extend out into the Atlantic Ocean.

 

 

 

Then it was off to Kimmeridge. We weren’t sure of what we would find in this tiny village of about a dozen houses or so. To our great surprise we had a very tasty meal at Clavell’s Restaurant and followed up across the road with a visit to the local and very well known fossil museum, Etches Fossil Collection. The museum has been set up by local Steve Etches who has been collecting fossils from the Kimmeridge Clay for over 40 years. Described as the modern day Mary Anning, he began collecting fossils from the age of 5. Not unlike Mary Anning he is completely self taught and what began as a hobby has resulted in a collection of more than 2800 fossils and he is still going. The centre piece of the collection is the most complete skull of a pliosaur (or Sea Rex) found to day.  The race is on to recover the rest of the body of the pliosaur from the cliffs before the natural erosion of the coastline claims it. They estimate they have another 2 winter seasons to achieve their goal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We drove on down to the Kimmeridge Cliffs to judge the degree of difficulty recovering fossils  – they certainly have a task ahead of them.

 

Driving back towards Weymouth we called into Lulworth and hiked down the path to Durdle Door. A perfect coastal arch, the rocks here have been tilted so they are almost vertical and the limestone barrier has almost been destroyed. The arch shows how nature creates land forms that are self supporting.