Dawlish Cliffs
Also within
Devon County King Charles Way - Kingswear to Lyme Regis National TrailSouth West Coast Path National Trail
Condition (Natural England)
| Unit | Feature | Condition | Area (ha) | Assessed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SX961761 | — | Unfavourable Recovering | 1.28 | 2011-11-10 |
| SX965768 | — | Unfavourable Declining | 3.58 | 2011-11-09 |
| SX969773 | — | Unfavourable Declining | 3.58 | 2011-11-09 |
| SX974776 | — | Unfavourable Declining | 3.58 | 2011-11-09 |
| SX979779 | — | Favourable | 1.75 | 2011-11-02 |
Climate exposure
This is about exposure to a nationwide pressure this habitat type carries — not a verdict on this site's own management.
Coastal habitats are exposed to sea-level rise and storm erosion. Where hard sea defences sit behind them, there's nowhere landward to retreat to — a squeeze that keeps compressing the habitat no matter how well it's managed.
Geology & landscape
Geological Period: Permian · Rock Type: Breccia, Sandstone
Landscape processes: Coastal, Fluvial
Description
Dawlish Cliffs SSSI Description Dawlish Cliffs shows one of the finest continuous exposures of interbedded Aeolian sands (Dawlish Sands) and water-laid, breccia-filled, fluvial channels of Permian age in the country. At the northern end of the section, Langstone Rock is the type section of the Langstone Breccias, a coarser sedimentary development within the main body of the Dawlish Sands. The coastal cliff section at Coryton’s Cove shows a major aeolian sandstone unit of Permian age some twenty metres thick. The junction of the underlying Coryton and Teignmouth fluvial breccias is also seen. The Teignmouth breccias include flat-bedded and normally graded deposits produced by sheet floods and also matrix-supported debris flows. They form a coarse and very thick basal unit of the local Permian succession.