Kimmeridge ( /ˈkɪmərɪdʒ/) is a small village and civil parish on the Isle of Purbeck, a peninsula on the English Channel coast in Dorset, England.

Kimmeridge is a coastal parish and its coastline forms part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site.

The coast is also part of a Site of Special Scientific Interest, and the whole parish is in the Dorset National Landscape area.

Within the clay are bands of bituminous shale, which in the history of the village have been the focus of several attempts to create an industrial centre.

Armlets were manufactured from the shale using a lathe, which produced waste in the form of hard black discs; these have been discovered at several sites, and were thought by 18th-century antiquaries to be coins and therefore called 'coal money'.

In the first half of the 17th century Sir William Clavell made several unsuccessful efforts to turn Kimmeridge into an industrial venture.

Kimmeridge village is sited beside a small stream on a roughly southwest-facing slope between the English Channel coast less than 1 mile (1.6 km) to the southwest and a curving line of hills immediately to the north and east.

[9] Kimmeridge civil parish covers land south and east of Kimmeridge village; it is bounded by the village stream and the copses of Higher and Lower Stonehips to the northwest, Smedmore Hill and the summit of Swyre Head to the northeast, field boundaries beyond Swalland Farm to the southeast, and the coastline between Rope Lake Head and Gaulter Gap to the southwest.

Its coastline forms part of the Jurassic Coast, a World Heritage Site that was designated in 2001 due to the global significance of its geological features and earth science interest.

[14] Over 2,000 hectares (4,900 acres) of the coast and underwater environment at Kimmeridge Bay are designated as the Purbeck Marine Wildlife Reserve, the UK's oldest Voluntary Marine Nature Reserve; although offering no legal wildlife protection, there is a visitor centre beside Kimmeridge Bay.

[15][16] The geology of Kimmeridge civil parish comprises bedrock formed in the Late Jurassic epoch, overlain in many places by superficial Quaternary head deposits.

The oil is transported by tanker to the Perenco site at Wytch Farm from whence it is piped to the main refinery on Southampton Water.

[2] In 2014 £2.7 million was secured from the Heritage Lottery Fund for the purpose of creating a new museum in Kimmeridge, on the site of the old village hall.

The project cost a total of £5 million and also houses conservation workshops and a new village hall and community space with a capacity for 120 people.

[25][26][27][28] Kimmeridge Bay is a surfing area which breaks infrequently due to its lack of exposure to Atlantic swells, but can produce walls of water when it is 'on'.