Exploring North Devon’s unique coastline

The North Devon coastline is very special indeed.

We have arcing bays of golden sand, pebble paradises and mud galore.

Rocky inlets are dwarfed by steep cliffs contrasting with miles of soft dunes.

ABOVE: Gudrun, the author of this new column

We everything from active harbours, resorts of beachside family entertainments to tiny beaches accessible only by kayak.

In the spring and summer, we are blessed with turquoise waters which can turn to wild waves loaded with flotsam in the winter gales.

But dig deeper, and it is not simply the sheer variety of coastline which makes North Devon special.

Being sited in the Bristol Channel means that we experience the second largest tidal range in the world.

This means that, between high tide when the sea covers most of the beach and low tide, when it covers the least, around ten metres of land is exposed.

Only the Bay of Fundy in Canada has a larger tidal range.

Secondly, much of our coastline is formed of slate.

This was formed some 400 million years ago in geological period named after a county – the Devonian Period.

The combination of the large areas of land exposed by the large tidal range and the slate which erodes to form endless nooks and crannies in which small creatures can hide gives rise to a wealth of rockpool life in North Devon.

It is in North Devon that much of our early understanding of rockpool life began.

Philip H Gosse, a man with a great interest in nature, holidayed in Ilfracombe in the mid-nineteenth century, and was fascinated by the creatures he saw living in the rocks.

He drew detailed pictures of them, particularly the anemones, and took samples back to London, inadvertently
inventing and naming the first aquariums.

There are still important developments on our coastline in terms of rockpool species.

It was only a few years ago that a new species of anemone, called the Fairy Anemone because of its ethereal
appearance, was discovered at Hele Bay.

Eighteen miles from the mainland coast, we have the tiny island of Lundy which carries so many species in its waters that it was recently designated England’s first Marine Nature Reserve.

Lundy is possibly most famous for its seabird sightings including, of course, the colourful, comical puffins.

In the water, there are rare sea fans and corals but also much larger creatures including, dolphins and basking sharks.

We are incredibly fortunate to have one of the largest colonies of grey seals in the country with more than around 200 resident on Lundy. Many of which can be seen on the mainland either fishing or hauled up on the rocks basking in the sun.

The presence of our seals also means that North Devon has a very active rescue community with British Divers Marine Life Rescue, the RSPCA, North Devon and Animals and other agencies all working together to rescue, rehabilitate, release and monitor our seals.

But our coastline is not simply about our resident wildlife.

All sorts of creatures, sometimes from the other side of the world, get washed up on our beaches.

There is much to be learnt about what gets stranded on our sands. With big weather and large rocks, we have shipwrecks aplenty.

Every day all sorts of detritus is stranded on the beaches.

Much of this tells a story about how we have dealt with our rubbish in the past, and some tells a tale of how we deal with it today, including the great efforts to clean up our environment by so many.

I look forward to exploring so much of this together through this column over the coming months.