Lyme Regis Museum

To really get a flavour of Lyme, make time for a visit to the town museum, which tells you everything you need to know about the town, its fossil-hunting traditions and literary connections. Housed in an attractive building overlooking the sea walls, the museum provides a crash course in local history and geology, and tells the story of Mary Anning, who originally lived on the site and was the first person to realise the significance of Lyme’s fossils and to sell them to visitors. There are also displays on Jane Austen, who was a regular visitor to the town and set part of Persuasion here; and on John Fowles, for many years a Lyme resident and in fact the curator of the museum – his office chair is on display – who set his most famous novel, The French Lieutenant’s Woman, here in Lyme.