What’s Here?

Watchet is a lively coastal town with so much to do whatever the weather. It has been a harbour town for over 1000 years which means that it has plenty of stories of Vikings, Kings and Queens and even headless saints! As well as beautiful and quirky buildings.  It is sheltered by the Quantock Hills and with view across the channel to Wales and down the coast to Minehead and Exmoor, the landscape around the town is simply stunning.

The Somerset coast, from Lilstock to Blue Anchor is nationally protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, for its Jurassic and Triassic rock strata. These rocks contain some of the earliest fossil ammonites recorded in Britain.

Did you know?

  • King Charles I walked to the scaffold in a waistcoat of Watchet Blue

  • Saxon King Canute had a royal mint in Watchet

  • The first section of the new national trail England Coast Path runs through Watchet

  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge was inspired to write the Rime of the Ancient Mariner here

  • The West Somerset Railway steam trains run through Watchet from Minehead to Bishops Lydeard

  • Some of the best fossil hunting in the country can be done here

  • Watchet has its own music festival and summer carnival as well as many other events throughout the year