Osmington Mills

Osmington Mills is a coastal hamlet in the English county of Dorset. It lies within the civil parish of Osmington 5 miles (8.0 km) northeast of Weymouth.

Osmington Mills
The Smugglers' Inn at Osmington Mills
Osmington Mills Location within Dorset
OS grid reference	SY734820
Unitary authority	Dorset
Ceremonial county	Dorset
Region	South West
Country	England
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	WEYMOUTH
Postcode district	DT3
Dialling code	01305
Police	Dorset
Fire	Dorset and Wiltshire
Ambulance	South Western
UK Parliament	South Dorset
List of places UK England Dorset 50.6356°N 2.3754°W / 50.6356; -2.3754

Geology

The coastline around Osmington Mills is part of Dorset's Jurassic Coast, and fossils can be found in the cliffs. The rocks consist of Kimmeridge Clay and the Corallian group from the Oxfordian (Upper Jurassic) and have an interesting trace fossil assemblage. To the west are Black Head and beyond that Redcliff Point, with fossils in the Upper Oxford Clay.

Tourism

Osmington Mills is popular with tourists, providing facilities such as camping and caravan sites, a public house (of which the site has been traced back to the 13th century), and attractive coastal walks.

John Constable

The area around Osmington Mills and Osmington Bay was painted by the English landscape artist John Constable in the early 19th century. He spent his honeymoon in the area in 1816. Paintings include:

• Osmington Bay^[1]
• A View of Osmington Bay^[2]
• Weymouth Bay from the Downs above Osmington Mills^[3]
• Weymouth Bay: Bowleaze Cove and Jordon Hill

See also

• Geology of Dorset
• Trigoniidae, found particularly around Osmington Mills

Gallery

• 
  The rounded nodules on the beach to the east of Osmington Mills are of calcite-cemented sandstone and come from the Bencliff Grit Formation which is found at the base of the cliffs.
• 
  Poetry at the
  'Smugglers Inn' (Based on Rudyard Kipling's A Smuggler's Song)
• 
  Weymouth Bay from the Downs above Osmington Mills, John Constable, (c. 1816)

Further reading

• Callaghan, Christopher. "The Palaeoichnology of the Oxfordian of Osmington Mills, Dorset".