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Visit to Beer Quarry Caves and Beer Head (Discovery Days)
Mon. 14 July 2025 at 10:00 am
Free
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Celebrating Devon’s World-Class Heritage: Discovery Days
This year, the Devonshire Association is ‘Celebrating Devon’s World-Class Heritage’ in a project supported by The National Lottery Heritage Fund which aims to raise awareness of our county’s UNESCO designated natural and cultural heritage and the Devonshire Association’s role in promoting that heritage over the past 163 years.
See this page for details of all the events.
The Dorset and East Devon Coast World Heritage Site is being explored in two Discovery Days:
- A day in Budleigh Salterton on Saturday 7 June 2025 (see here), and
- Visits to Beer Quarry Caves and Beer Head on Monday 14 July (this page).
Programme for the morning tour
- 10.00 Welcome and introduction to the day.
- 10.30 First group tour of Beer Quarry Caves.
- 11.00 Second group tour of Beer Quarry Caves.
Beer stone window tracery from Colyton church in Beer Quarry Caves. Image © Sue Andrew
Described by W.G. Hoskins as ‘one of the most exciting things in Devon’, Beer Quarry Caves has supplied building stone for ‘Roman villas… cathedrals, parish churches, country houses and cottages, right down to recent times.’ A guided tour, which lasts approximately 75 minutes, recounts the story of this remarkable site of industrial archaeology and the men who laboured to extract the stone over hundreds of years.
Car parking at Beer Quarry Caves is free for visitors. Light refreshments and toilets are available on site. Please wear warm clothes as the caves are cool. See beerquarrycaves.co.uk
Programme for the afternoon walk (fully booked)
- 14.00 Meet at upper end of Beer Head car park (pay and display/RingGo), Common Lane, Beer.
Hooken Undercliff between Beer and Branscombe. Image © Sue Andrew
Please wear appropriately robust shoes/boots for a 90-minute return walk via a minor road and public bridleway to Beer Head and Hooken Cliffs, where the views along the Jurassic Coast in both directions are spectacular. We will be guided by Emeritus Professor Malcolm Hart, micropalaeontologist, who will explain the geology and landscape of the area. The views to Torbay and Dartmoor in the west and to Portland Bill in the east can be used to explain the ‘outstanding universal value’ of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.
The walk is gently undulating but is relatively firm underfoot. Sun protection/weatherproof clothing is advised dependent on conditions.
Refreshments and toilets are available in Beer village, though not on the cliffs.
Booking
ALL DISCOVERY DAYS ARE FREE TO ATTEND BUT BOOKING VIA TICKETSOURCE IS ESSENTIAL
- The afternoon walk is now fully booked
- Spaces are available for the morning session at Beer Caves only. Book via this link
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