North Devon Coast

The North Devon Coast is a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Devon, England, designated in September 1959. The AONB contributes to a family of protected landscapes in the Southwest of England and a total of 38% of the region is classified by the International Union for Conservation of Nature as Category V Protected Landscapes. The twelve Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty extend to 30% of the region, twice the proportion covered by AONBs in England as a whole and a further two National Parks, Dartmoor and Exmoor, cover an additional 7%.

The North Devon Coast AONB covers 171 square kilometres (66 sq mi) of mainly coastal landscape from the border of Exmoor National Park at Combe Martin, through the mouth of the Taw & Torridge Estuary to the Cornish border at Marsland Mouth. The dune system at Braunton Burrows forms the core area of North Devon's Biosphere Reserve, the first "new style" Unesco-designated reserve in the United Kingdom. The whole of the AONB is within the Reserve boundaries.

The North Devon Coast was first considered to require some form of national landscape protection in 1953 and was originally intended to be part of the Exmoor National Park. The Torridge section was to be part of the proposed Cornwall Coast National Park. This was not to be, and by 1956 Devon County Council had agreed that the North and South Devon Coasts should be considered as AONBs.

The National Parks Commission were asked to draw up a proposed boundary to submit to the County Council and there was consultation with the Urban and Rural District Councils concerned. Initially, it was proposed that most of Combe Martin village be excluded because of bad disfigurement by electricity and telephone cables. The suggested boundary largely followed the Area of Special Landscape Value, which was a County Council designation. There followed a period of consultation and modification e.g. Northam Burrows was added. Following public advertisement only one representation was received; this was from a resident concerned about his proposal to develop a holiday camp at Watermouth. Ultimately, in September 1959, the North Devon AONB was the first AONB in Devon to be designated and confirmed in May 1960, just two months ahead of South Devon.

For many years, the AONB had no specific management service, however in the early 1990s, a Heritage Coast Service managed the two defined Heritage Coasts which have similar boundaries to the AONB. In 2002 Braunton Burrows, within the AONB, was re-designated as the core of a Biosphere Reserve under the revised UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme, providing international recognition for the area. This was closely followed by the establishment of the North Devon AONB Partnership in 2004 with a small staff unit to support it. There is a close relationship between the AONB management and that of the North Devon UNESCO Biosphere Reserve with reciprocal partnership membership.

The North Devon AONB contains a diversity of scenery including tall, rugged cliffs, wave-cut platforms, wide sandy bays, sand dunes, traditional hedged fields with wind sculptured trees, steep-sided wooded combes and woodland that runs right to the cliff edge. Encompassed within the designated area is the dramatic coastline of the Hartland promontory, the calm tranquillity of Bideford Bay, the internationally important conservation sites that flank the Taw and Torridge Estuary, the striking headlands and golden beaches of the North Devon Downs and the secluded coves and bays of the North Devon High Coast. North Devon's coastline face the Atlantic Ocean and the Bristol Channel.

In 2006-7 Devon County Council, in partnership with Natural England, the Devon AONBs and other local authorities, commissioned a study of the North Devon landscape. As a result, the AONB has been classified into 11 Landscape Character Types.

Found along the Atlantic Coast between Bude and Ilfracombe, frequently interrupted by lower-lying landscape types, especially between Westward Ho! and Woolacombe. This type is characterised by dense low hedges (often elm) with occasional hedgerow oaks, little woodland, few roads but many rights of way, very low settlement density, influence of geology on land form, and extensive views along the coast.