(1) Start the Town Trail at The Marine Theatre. The Theatre was originally built as a ‘Bath House’ in 1804. The two baths, one for ladies and one for gents were filled with seawater and heated by two large boilers. The baths may still be under the main floor of the Theatre, but the old Pump House is now a dressing room. It became the Theatre in around 1936. Today it hosts year round events.

(2) The Theatre Square outside the Theatre, provides wonderful views during performance intervals. It also forms part of an award-winning sewage and coast protection scheme constructed during 1993 and 1994.

(3) Next to Theatre Square is Gun Cliff - where the town’s guns were once installed. Old accounts list many repairs to the Guildhall windows, which were damaged by the shock waves when the guns were fired for practice. In 1690 a French galley approached Lyme after having “overrun, sacked and burnt Teignmouth on Aug 5th”. A cannon on the Gun Cliff was fired and the shot fell near the galley, which made off without a fight. The French galleys had 50–60 huge oars, rowed by criminals and slaves. The boats usually carried 336 oarsmen and 150 officers and crew.

(4) Walk under the archway onto Church Street.

(5) Turn left.

(6) The Guildhall has stood here since the 16th century. The area by the entrance to the Guildhall was known as Cockmoile Square and was the site of the town stocks. The last man to be put in the stocks was Tommy Pearce who was sentenced in 1836 for drunkenness.

(7) Next to The Guildhall, the award-winning Lyme Regis Museum was purpose built in 1901 and first opened to the public in 1921. Here you can uncover all the town’s stories including that of Mary Anning. Mary was the greatest fossil hunter ever known and her discoveries, including the first complete Icthyosaur, were some of the most significant geological finds of all time. Find out more at the museum it is well worth a special visit. Fossil hunting walks are available all year.

(8) Diagonally opposite the Museum is The Pilot Boat Inn. On January 1st 1915, the battleship ‘Formidable,’ with a crew of 750 men, was torpedoed in Lyme Bay in terrible weather. Two lifeboats were launched, but only one made it to the shore after a small crowd on the beach used ropes to bring it in. Forty-eight exhausted survivors were taken to the Pilot Boat Inn. The dog ‘Lassie’, belonging to the landlord of the Pilot Boat, revived someone put aside as dead, by licking his face.

(9) Diagonally opposite The Inn is Cobb Gate car park. The Cobb Gate was the location of warehouses during Lyme’s important trading times. Horses were used to take bales of supplies and goods to the ships. The horses apparently knew the route so well they could do it unguided. Walk through the car park onto Marine Parade.

(10) The wall along Marine Parade was rebuilt in 1903 to hold back earth movement from the gardens above. During summer evenings you can enjoy weekly performances in ‘The Shelters’ by the Lyme Regis Town Band. The Jane Austen Garden, above the Parade, commemorates the author who lodged in the town in 1803–1804 and used the Cobb, town and surrounding countryside as part of the setting for her novel Persuasion, written in 1815–1816.

(11) Follow Marine Parade until you reach The Cobb.

(12) Follow Marine Parade until you reach The Cobb.

(13) Follow Marine Parade until you reach The Cobb.

(14) Follow Marine Parade until you reach The Cobb.

(15) Follow Marine Parade until you reach The Cobb.

(16) The Cobb is the town’s artificial harbour first mentioned in 1294. It was originally completely detached from the land and was joined in 1756. The Cobb was badly damaged by storms and was rebuilt in local Portland stone in the 1820’s. A plaque on the Cobb wall provides details of this work .In 1588 several ships sailed from the Cobb to meet the Spanish Armada. The steps leading to the upper part of the Cobb, made from protruding stones, are known locally as ‘Granny’s Teeth’. The Cobb also featured in the film adaptation of The French Lieutenant’s Woman, which starred Meryl Streep and Jeremy Irons. The novel was written by local author, the late John Fowles, and filmed in the town in 1980. Whilst at the end of the Cobb, take time to visit the Marine Aquarium which includes an exhibition on the Cobb’s history.

(17) As you leave The Cobb turn left onto the pebble beach. James, Duke of Monmouth landed at Lyme Regis in 1685 to begin his rebellion against King James I. The attempt to overthrow the King and claim the crown for himself was ill fated. He was captured and twelve of his local supporters were executed on the beach, under the orders of Judge Jeffreys. This beach is now called Monmouth Beach.

(18) Walk back to The Cobb and follow Marine Parade back towards Cobb Gate.

(19) Follow Marine Parade back towards Cobb Gate.

(20) Follow Marine Parade back towards Cobb Gate.

(21) Follow Marine Parade back towards Cobb Gate.

(22) Follow Marine Parade back towards Cobb Gate.

(23) When you reach Jane Austen gardens, turn left following the path up into Langmoor and Lister Gardens. If you go past Swim, you've gone too far along Marine Parade.

(24) Langmoor and Lister Gardens offer mini golf, table tennis, a putting green and a quiet haven in which to relax. Lister Gardens are named after Joseph Lister who is famed for discovering the use of antiseptics. Within Langmoor Gardens is a statue of Admiral Sir George Somers who was born in Lyme in 1554. He became Mayor of Lyme and in 1609 'discovered' Bermuda, after he set sail for Jamestown, Virginia, got caught in a hurricane and became shipwrecked on the Island. Somers eventually reached Virginia. He set off to return to England and called in again at Bermuda where he died in 1610. His heart was buried on the island, but his body, pickled in rum, was brought back to England and buried in Whitchurch Canonicorum. Bermuda had really been discovered a hundred years earlier by Spaniard Señor Juan Bermondez who named the island after himself. Despite this, the towns of Lyme Regis and St George’s, Bermuda were officially twinned in 1996.

(25) Follow the paths through the gardens, enjoying the views over the harbour.

(26) Follow the paths through the gardens.

(27) Follow the paths through the gardens.

(28) Follow the paths through the gardens.

(29) Follow the road around to the left until you reach the garden gates.

(30) Follow the road around to the left until you reach the garden gates.

(31) Exit the garden gates, turn right. You are now at the top of Broad Street. As well as lovely shops, there are a number of interesting houses in this street. Look out for the blue plaques that will tell you more. From a window of the Royal Lion Inn, James Whistler saw Rose Rendall, the subject of his painting, ‘The Little Rose of Lyme’. Rose was the daughter of a grocer who had a shop in the street. It is said that she ran away when Whistler said he wanted to paint her because she thought he meant literally to do just that. At the top of Broad Street on the right and in front of the Baptist Church is Sherborne Lane.

(32) Sherborne Lane is one of the oldest lanes in Lyme Regis and has several attractive cottages. It is very steep and narrow.

(33) Follow Sherborne Lane to the end.

(34) Follow Sherborne Lane to the end.

(35) Turn right onto Coombe Street.

(36) On your left is Dinosaurland which housed in the 1755 Coombe Street chapel. It is well worth a visit.

(37) Turn right into Mill Lane.

(38) The Town Mill, in Mill Lane has been fully restored and is now open to the public. The first mill in Lyme was recorded in the Domesday Book in 1086 and could possibly have been on this site.

(39) Leave Mill Lane and follow Monmouth Street.

(40) At the end of Monmouth Street, you'll find St. Michael's Church. A church has stood on this site since the 12th century and the history is well documented inside. The grave of Mary Anning, Lyme Regis’ famous palaeontologist, is in the churchyard and there is a stained glass window in the Church in her memory. Leaving the church, turn left onto Church Street.

(41) Turn left into Long Entry.

(42) Long Entry once led across Black Ven to Charmouth but was lost to the sea by 1750. The novelist Henry Fielding attempted to abduct 15 year old Sarah Andrew, a wealthy heiress, in this lane in 1725. The abduction was thwarted by her guardian, Andrew Tucker and his son John. A tribunal followed, but Fielding did not attend. He left town saying that he would not appear before the “fat and greasy citizens” and put up a notice stating, “this is to give notice to all the world that Andrew Tucker and his son John are clowns and cowards”. The original is in the Lyme Regis Museum. Sophia Western, the heroine of Fielding’s famous novel Tom Jones, is thought to have been inspired by Sarah Andrews.