Saturday Snapshot

Published on by Margaret

I still haven’t sorted out my photos of Glencoe and Glen Nevis from our holiday there the other week. So, in the meantime here are a few photos I took the day we didn’t go to Lyme Regis.

We were staying with my sister on New Year’s Eve nearly five years ago. We had wanted to go to Lyme Regis – to see the Cobb and so on, but when we got there it was so full of people and cars that there was nowhere to park and so we carried on along the coast to Seaton, a small traditional seaside town at the mouth of the River Axe. In contrast to Lyme Regis there were just a few people strolling along the promenade and beach.

Its coastline is part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site. The whole Site is 95 miles long and covers a complete record through the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods of geological time. The White Cliff at Seaton is composed of white chalk about 90 to 110 million years old.

At the other side of the bay the cliffs are red, which the interpretation board told me are from the Triassic period and the red colour (caused by iron oxide) indicates the climate was hot and dry for much of the year just like present day deserts in the Middle East!

I suppose the lure of fossils, combined with the literary association of Lyme Regis – the Cobb in Jane Austen’s Persuasion and John Fowles’s setting for The French Lieutenant’s Woman mean that more people are attracted to visit Lyme Regis but still Seaton is an interesting place to see – I don’t imagine there are many places you can see a 185 million-year ‘˜geological walk through time’. And I had walked along the Cobb the last time we went to Lyme Regis.

For more Saturday Snapshots see Alyce’s blog At Home With Books.

18 thoughts on “Saturday Snapshot”

  1. Wow, recently I have read so many books that take place on this very spot…. like the Fowles book, but also a book called Curiosity, by Canadian author Joan Thomas, which focuses on the fossil deposits of Lyme Regis and the Dorset area. Thank you for these awesome clear pictures.
    You’re bringing it all to life, for me.

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  3. I seem to be reading many books set somewhere in the British Isles…I seem to be drawn to them.

    Thanks for the wonderful historical facts….and despite the popularity of the first site, I think it is much lovelier to visit the less populated beach. That’s usually my choice.

    Here’s MY SATURDAY SNAPSHOT POST

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  5. I, too, was reminded of a book that I’ve recently read that is set in this region … Tracy Chevalier’s Remarkable Creatures … thank you for these photos … and the commentary! Also … I think it’s funny that I was musing on Fowle’s book the other day and Meryl Streep’s portrayal in the movie … strange indeed that this title has come so soon after that!

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  6. This is amazing. Thanks for showing this historic site, Seaton. I’d love to visit the UK. I’ve been there several times, but never fully discover all the treasures. I need to live there since there are so much to explore. And yes, I notice Lyme Regis right away. That’s another must-see view point.

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  16. Margaret – These are just lovely ‘photos! Maybe it’s not so bad that you didn’t get to your original destination 🙂

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  17. I love that part of the coast. I walked once from Lyme Regis to Seaton (a town without a cash machine in sight). My husband and I had planned to bus back, but because we had no fares, had to do the walk back. Had blisters by the end, but it is a beautiful coastal walk.

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  18. Love the pictures and information. It’s a good few years since I went to Lyme, and I would love to revisit. No Snapshot from me this week, because I have been at my mother’s again, but I’m enjoying looking at everyone else’s.

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