Beer is a very attractive fishing village not far from Knightstone. The name has nothing to do with beer, the drink, but comes from the old English word for woodland, bears, because of the forestation around Beer many years ago.
Beer is located in part of the UNESCO World Heritage Jurassic Coast, which covers part of East Devon’s as well as west Dorset’s coasts. Beer is surrounded by white chalk cliffs, but a little bit further west, in Sidmouth, the chalk has given way to the more porous sandstone. See my blog from Ladnam Bay that clearly illustrates the difference between the white chalk and the red sandstone.
Right: In between the boats you can find anchors, mooring lines and floats used for fishing and some rusty deck chairs for relaxing after work well done.
The beach itself is shingle and there is no port as such and not even a single pier. Instead the fishing boats are winched up on the beach and pulled down into the sea, nowadays also with the help of a tractor. But all over the beach the wires from the winches runs over the stones on the beach.
Walking down towards the beach the local fishmonger is placed in a small shop selling fresh fish and seafood. And a couple of huts offer drinks and simple things to eat. But at sunrise nothing was yet opened. Many of our guests at Knightstone have been dragged away on the walk from Beer to Branscombe. You commence the walk on top of the white cliffs that you see in my pictures before descending on Branscombe and its village pub.
