20 – 24 July 2022
Situated along the world famous Jurassic Coast in Dorset you’ll find Highlands End Holiday Park. Our motivation for this visit is Master B who is fascinated with fossils and wanted to do a fossil hunting trip.
The image above is from the walk down to Eype beach directly from the site. It’s not far in distance but walking back up that hill was a nice workout each time although it’s not for the faint hearted. Theres a public carpark next to the beach which makes in accessible to all.
Highlands End Holiday Park is now on our top ten list of places to pitch in England. It has everything you need, everything is immaculately clean, the staff are all friendly and helpful. More than anything, the whole place was set up perfectly with the customer in mind. We couldn’t find a single fault.
It has as Spar shop on site that is the most well stocked shop with campers in mind. We didn’t eat at the onsite restaurant although we did venture in there and it looked great with games tables too and a little firefighting museum!
On our first evening we ventured down to Eype beach to see if we could find any fossils although we weren’t feeling optimistic. These doubts were immediately abated as there was plenty to see on fallen rocks.
On Day Two, Inspired by what we found we decided to travel the 40 miles to The Etches Collection Museum in Kimmeridge to see some of the best fossils discovered in the local area by Steve Etches.
We were lucky enough to park the motorhome on the carpark directly behind the museum although it did fill up quickly. It really is worth a visit as the exhibition is absolutely fascinating with complete ichthyosaurus fossils amongst lots of others. I didn’t take any photos of the exhibition as I think you should visit which will help fund their education programme.
The Etches Collection Museum is located in Kimmeridge which has its own fantastic beach. A short drive along the road from the museum you’ll find a very friendly lady who will take £12 from you in exchange for a days worth of parking next to Kimmeridge Bay. There was plenty of room and we parked overlooking the cliff out to see. After a lovey lunch we headed out to The Fine Foundation Wild Seas Centre
This is situated a short walk to the left of the carpark. It has a lovely little exhibition inside with a history of Kimmeridge Bay, it’s completely free although we left a donation.
Its quite rocky on this side of the Bay so again a good opportunity to spot fossils.
Back up to the carpark we headed to the right of the Bay.
On day 3, armed with a fossil hunting kit from the The Etches Collection Museum, we back down to Hype Beach. We met a fossil hunter with his daughter who was very knowledgeable and imparted some useful tips to Master B. There had been a new rock fall during the night and it was an opportune time to hunt for fresh fossils. The rule in Dorset is that you can’t remove fossils from the cliff but you can collect fossils that have already fallen and we found a few!!
We also had help from the canine fossil hunter.
Someone had made these lovely rock states.
Highlands End Holiday Park has great access to West Bay too along the coastal path.
An ideal place to walk to for a fish and chip lunch on the seafront and work them off walking up the hill back to the site.
Other than exploring and fossil hunting there’s lots of fun to be had chilling with Duggie.
The guy in the onsite shop said we should go to Carmouth Beach as its great for fossil hunting. When we got there we were able to park straight away in their vast carpark. Next to the carpark is another free fossil museum, Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre which is well worth a visit.
The fossil shop underneath is an amazing aladin’s cave of fossils, curios and gifts. This is the only photo I got of the entire visit as I left my camera in the van so had to go back.
And some completely random bits…
Duggies Adventures 