South West Coast Path above Babbacombe Bay (geograph 1855208)

Babbacombe Bay is a South-East

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

shallow, wide, continuation of the main sweep of

Lyme Bay Lyme Bay is an area of the English Channel off the south coast of England. The south western counties of Devon and Dorset front onto the bay. The exact definitions of the bay vary. The eastern boundary is usually taken to be Portland Bill on the ...

''Road Atlas of Great Britain'', Eleventh Edition, Map 3 which, in turn, to the east is the western end of the

Jurassic Coast The Jurassic Coast is a World Heritage Site on the English Channel coast of southern England. It stretches from Exmouth in East Devon to Studland Bay in Dorset, a distance of about , and was inscribed on the World Heritage List in mid-December ...

(mainly in

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

)''Merriam-Webster's Geographic Dictionary'', Third Edition, p. 1,223 in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

, UK. It faces east towards the parent, notably large bay of the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" (Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), (Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kana ...

, weakly sheltered from large tides from the east but much so from Atlantic tides, currents and storms from the west. As a sub-bay it covers about . It is bounded by: *

Hope's Nose Hope's Nose is a coastal headland, separating Tor Bay from Babbacombe Bay. It is visible from much of the town and harbour of Torquay, Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in ...

the east end of the steep and jagged northern edge of

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paignton ...

, as the bay's southern tip; *with no prominence bar a short, east-reaching, harbour wall at

Teignmouth Teignmouth ( ) is a seaside town, fishing port and civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is situated on the north bank of the estuary mouth of the River Teign, about 12 miles south of Exeter. The town had a population of 14,749 at the ...

to the immediate north, the

River Teign The River Teign is a river in the county of Devon, England. It is long and rises on Dartmoor, becomes an estuary just below Newton Abbot and reaches the English Channel at Teignmouth. Toponymy The river-name 'Teign' is first attested in an An ...

. Some of the much removed crystalline deposits of gold at the southern point are in a longstanding exhibit of the

Natural History Museum, London The Natural History Museum in London is a museum that exhibits a vast range of specimens from various segments of natural history. It is one of three major museums on Exhibition Road in South Kensington, the others being the Science Museum an ...

. These are notable to

mineral collector Mineral collecting is the hobby of systematically collecting, identifying and displaying mineral specimens. Mineral collecting can also be a part of the profession of mineralogy and allied geologic specialties. Individual collectors often sp ...

Dawlish Dawlish is an English seaside resort town and civil parish in Teignbridge on the south coast of Devon, from the county town of Exeter and from the larger resort of Torquay. Its 2011 population of 11,312 was estimated at 13,355 in 2019. It is t ...

along the bay is a town which saw its seaside mainline railway rebuilt quickly due to the unusually fierce

2013–14 United Kingdom winter floods The 2013–2014 United Kingdom winter floods saw areas of Ireland and the United Kingdom inundated following severe storms. The south of England saw heavy rainfalls associated with these storms which caused widespread flooding, power cuts and m ...

. Sand in several places, and cliffs are red-brown. In nineteenth-century texts the Devonian has been called the "Old Red Age", after the red and brown terrestrial deposits: the

Old Red Sandstone The Old Red Sandstone is an assemblage of rocks in the North Atlantic region largely of Devonian age. It extends in the east across Great Britain, Ireland and Norway, and in the west along the northeastern seaboard of North America. It also exte ...

in which early fossil discoveries were found. Another common term is "Age of the Fishes", referring to the evolution of several major groups of

fish Fish are aquatic, craniate, gill-bearing animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish as well as various extinct related groups. Approximately 95% of li ...

that took place during the period. In older terms nationally it unites the Dittonian, Breconian, and Farlovian stages.

Notes

References

* ''Merriam-Webster's Geographic Dictionary'', Third Edition. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, Inc., 1997. . * ''Road Atlas of Great Britain'', Eleventh Edition. Basingstoke, Hampshire, United Kingdom: The Automobile Association, 1991. {{Commons category, Babbacombe Bay Bays of Devon