Top Beaches Day Trips from Taunton
Written by UK Hidden Gems Editorial
Updated 5 August 2026
The top Beaches Day Trips from Taunton include Kilve Beach, East Quantoxhead Beach, Lilstock Beach, Blue Anchor Beach, Berrow Beach, Minehead Beach, Seaton Beach and Bossington Beach.
Taunton lies inland in the Somerset lowlands, yet the coast of the Bristol Channel is a short drive north, and a longer run reaches the Jurassic shores of Devon, giving plenty of choice for a day at the sea. The nearest beaches are the fossil-rich rock shores below the Quantocks, where Kilve, East Quantoxhead and Lilstock lay out ledges of grey lias full of ammonites at low tide.
West along the coast lie the wide sands of Blue Anchor and Minehead, backed by promenades and a heritage steam railway, and beyond them the pebble ridge of Bossington curves around Porlock Bay on the Exmoor coast. Berrow, north of Burnham, stretches out flat and open past the timbers of a wrecked sailing ship, while further afield the Jurassic Coast shingle of Seaton makes a longer outing.
Some are easy resort beaches, others quiet and remote, but each rewards the drive from town. Here are eight of the best beach day trips to take from Taunton.
Kilve Beach
Photo: Chris Gunns via Geograph.org.uk
Kilve Beach sits below the Quantock Hills on the west Somerset coast, a rocky, fossil-rich shore looking out over the Bristol Channel. Wide ledges of grey lias reach out beneath low cliffs, and the flat stones and shale hold ammonites and other fossils that weather out onto the beach.
Close to the shore stands a ruined brick building, all that is left of a failed 1920s scheme to draw oil from the shale. A car park and path drop down to the beach, though the rock is protected ground and must not be hammered.
Come at low tide to hunt for ammonites among the ledges.
East Quantoxhead Beach
Photo: Derek Harper via Geograph.org.uk
East Quantoxhead Beach is a rocky, fossil-rich shore on the Somerset coast, facing the Bristol Channel near Kilve. Low cliffs of grey Blue Lias, a banding of mudstone and hard limestone, stand behind a broad platform of rock ledges that the tide uncovers at low water.
Ammonites weather slowly out of the stone, and rock pools brim among the ledges. There is no parking down at the beach itself, which you reach on a footpath leading down from the village.
Come when the tide is low and give yourself time for the walk. Bring a keen eye for the fossils.
Lilstock Beach
Photo: Neil Owen via Geograph.org.uk
Lilstock Beach is a remote rocky foreshore on the Somerset side of the Bristol Channel, lying west of both Kilve and Watchet. Beneath low, crumbling cliffs the shore forms a wave-cut platform of dark shale and pale limestone ledges, threaded with shingle, sand and mud, and it gazes out toward the island of Steep Holm.
The rock beds carry fossils from the very close of the Triassic and dawn of the Jurassic, around two hundred million years old, and ammonites, belemnites and even marine reptile bones have turned up here. It is a protected geological site, with a small car park set back in the hamlet and a short track down.
Wander out for a quiet, ancient shore.
Blue Anchor Beach
Photo: John C via Geograph.org.uk
Blue Anchor Beach stretches long and flat on the Somerset coast near Watchet, opening wide at low tide below low cliffs of soft red rock. Those cliffs are crumbling red Triassic mudstone, streaked with pale seams of gypsum and alabaster, the coloured stone that gave the old name Watchet Blue, and lumps of that alabaster lie scattered over the sand.
A promenade backs the beach, and the little station of the heritage West Somerset Railway sits just above the shore, so steam trains rattle close by. The soft cliffs slump and crack as they wear back.
JMW Turner painted the bay and its old inn in the nineteenth century, with views across the Bristol Channel toward Wales.
Berrow Beach
Photo: Bob Harvey via Geograph.org.uk
Berrow Beach is a wide, flat expanse of sand on the Somerset coast, just north of Burnham-on-Sea, backed by low dunes and looking out over the vast tidal flats of Bridgwater Bay. Its best-known feature lies out on the sand: the blackened wooden ribs of the Nornen, a Norwegian sailing ship wrecked here in 1897 and now half-buried, her timbers rising like the skeleton of some great animal.
Her whole crew of ten was saved by the Burnham lifeboat, with no lives lost. The beach runs on for a long way, firm and open, with a little dune-backed church nearby.
Seek it out at low tide to find the wreck out on the sand.
Minehead Beach
Photo: Lewis Clarke via Geograph.org.uk
Minehead Beach is the chief beach of the resort town of Minehead on the Somerset side of the Bristol Channel, a broad, flat shore that grows sandy near the harbour and turns muddier and stonier further along. The Esplanade runs behind it, lined with old holiday hotels, and at one end sit the old harbour with its boats and the Butlin's resort.
This is also where the South West Coast Path begins, a long-distance route of some 630 miles all the way to Poole, its start marked on the quay by a sculpture of a pair of hands holding a map, raised in 2001. An easy day by the sea awaits.
Seaton Beach
Photo: Philip Halling via Geograph.org.uk
Seaton Beach is a shingle beach running about a mile behind a sea wall at the town of Seaton in east Devon, where the River Axe reaches the sea on the Jurassic Coast. Red cliffs climb away to the east and white chalk cliffs toward Beer to the west, while the estuary behind teems with birdlife and wetland reserves lie close at hand.
A narrow-gauge heritage tramway trundles from the seafront up the Axe valley to the village of Colyton. There is parking and a promenade, and the South West Coast Path threads along the shore.
It suits a longer, unhurried day out.
Bossington Beach
Photo: N Chadwick via Geograph.org.uk
Bossington Beach Curving around Porlock Bay on Somerset's Exmoor coast, between wooded Hurlstone Point and Porlock Weir, Bossington is a long grey pebble ridge thrown up by the sea and flanked by the hills of the Exmoor coast. Behind it lies not dune but wide saltmarsh: a storm breached the ridge in 1996 and the land beyond was given back to the tide, so former farmland is now a bird-rich maze of creeks and pools.
At low water the blackened stumps of a drowned prehistoric forest surface on the foreshore. The National Trust cares for this quiet, open stretch, ideal for a wide walk along the ridge.
FAQs
Which beach is closest to Taunton?
The fossil-rich shores below the Quantocks are nearest, with Kilve, East Quantoxhead and Lilstock all a short drive north. Kilve has a car park and path down, while East Quantoxhead is reached on foot from the village.
Are these beaches good for fossil hunting?
Very much so. Kilve, East Quantoxhead and Lilstock all lay out ledges of grey lias holding ammonites and other fossils at low tide, though at Kilve the protected rock cannot be hammered.
Can you see a shipwreck on any of these beaches?
Yes. At Berrow, just north of Burnham-on-Sea, the blackened timbers of the Nornen, wrecked in 1897, rise from the sand at low tide and are the beach's best-known sight.
Conclusion
For a town set well back from the sea, Taunton is spoilt for beaches within a day's reach, from the fossil ledges below the Quantocks to the wide sands and steam trains of the west Somerset coast. You might spend a low-tide morning hunting ammonites at Kilve or Lilstock, walk out to the wreck on the sand at Berrow, or seek out the quiet pebble ridge and marsh at Bossington on the Exmoor coast.
Blue Anchor and Minehead offer easy resort days with promenades and heritage railways, while the Jurassic Coast shingle at Seaton makes a rewarding longer outing. Whatever kind of shore you fancy, pack a picnic and check the tides, for these are the best beach day trips to take from Taunton.
