South Devon National Landscape is a place where rolling hills, dramatic coastlines, ancient woodlands, and peaceful estuaries come together to create one of England’s most breathtaking natural treasures. Designated for its outstanding natural beauty, this special region offers more than just spectacular scenery; it’s a living canvas of Earth’s geological and cultural past.
From fossil-rich cliffs to prehistoric caves, South Devon tells a story that spans over 400 million years, and it’s all waiting to be explored.
A Landscape Forged Over 400 Million Years
From the ancient sea beds of the Devonian Period to the icy grip of the last Ice Age, the South Devon landscape is a living archive of our planet’s deep past. Its unique geodiversity is one of the reasons the region has earned recognition not just for its beauty, but also for its scientific importance.
Devonian Period: Life Beneath Ancient Tropical Seas
Around 400 million years ago, during the Devonian Period, South Devon was located near the equator and submerged beneath a warm, shallow sea. Coral reefs thrived in these waters, and over millions of years, they were transformed into fossil-rich limestone, now exposed at sites like Berry Head, Hopes Nose, and parts of the South West Coast Path.
This limestone is packed with the remains of corals, trilobites, and brachiopods, some of the earliest complex marine organisms. Walking the cliffs today, you’re quite literally tracing the floor of a long-lost ocean.
Carboniferous Period: A Time of Upheaval
About 310 million years ago, dramatic shifts in Earth’s tectonic plates led to the Variscan Orogeny, a massive mountain-building event. The once-flat seafloor was buckled, tilted, and folded, creating the spectacular geology seen today in formations like Orestone Rock and Start Point.
These rugged features offer a rare and visible record of the Earth’s internal forces, with layers of rock twisted like pages in an ancient book. This period also laid the foundations for the hilly terrain that defines South Devon’s countryside today.
Permian Period: The Red Desert
Roughly 270 million years ago, after the collapse of the Variscan mountains, South Devon became part of a vast desert system. The climate turned hot and dry, and sand and gravel carried by flash floods were deposited across the landscape. Over time, these materials hardened into the distinctive red sandstones and breccias that now form the cliffs and beaches around areas like Dawlish Warren and Budleigh Salterton.
These red rocks tell of a time when life on land was just beginning to evolve. Today, their bold colour and dramatic texture make them a defining visual feature of the South Devon coast.
Quaternary Period: Ice, Caves, and Early Humans
Fast forward to the last half-million years, and South Devon found itself shaped by ice ages and rising seas. While glaciers didn’t reach this far south, the cold climate led to the formation of caves and sinkholes, most notably at Kents Cavern in Torquay, one of Europe’s most significant Stone Age sites.
Inside Kents Cavern, archaeologists have discovered tools and remains from some of Britain’s earliest humans, alongside bones of extinct Ice Age animals like woolly mammoths, cave bears, and sabre-toothed cats. These findings provide rare insight into how humans adapted to changing climates and landscapes over thousands of years.
