Budleigh Salterton Ancient River and Sand Dune
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The cliffs to the west of Budleigh show cavitation hollows possibly formed by wind WORLD HERITAGE COAST erosion or the action of salt weathering. LOCATIONS: As you walk west along the beach below BUDLEIGH SALTERTON the cliffs you will see the Budleigh Salterton Pebble Beds, also deposited by ANCIENT RIVER AND SAND river action. The pebbles are rounded and have clearly been transported some DUNE SEDIMENTS IN THE distance to achieve the rounded character CLIFFS AT BUDLEIGH by attrition (banging together). Further to the west the rocks change to mudstone, a massive clay formed in quieter water conditions possibly river flood plains due to seasonal floods perhaps USEFUL RESOURCES: Maps: Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer Map 115. British Geological Survey Map Sheet 326 Sidmouth. Books: Geology of Devon edited by Durrance. University of Exeter. Coast and Country Geological Walks in and around Dorset CD. DGAG. The cliffs further west at Budleigh Salterton showing cavitation hollows Geology of the Jurassic Coast, the Red above and Budleigh Salterton Pebble Coast Revealed. Richard Edwards. Jurassic Beds below. Coast Trust. Email [email protected] Websites: ©Alan Holiday 2018 dorsetgeologistsassociation.org The view from the western end of the Promenade at Budleigh Salterton, the jurassiccoast.org orange red sandstone is typical of much of east Devon’s geology. southampton.ac.uk/~imw 2. The cliffs west of Budleigh are high day River Nile flowing thousands of WHAT’S SPECIAL and liable to rock falls so you should kilometres across Africa. In this case the walk as far away from the cliff as rivers flowed from far to the west. Further ABOUT THE GEOLOGY possible. along the beach pebbles can be seen in the cliffs and these indicate a source AT BUDLEIGH 3. The beach is broad so unless you including what we now call Brittany. Such SALTERTON? walk the section in a storm at high pebbles seen on the beach eroded from tide there should be little problem. the cliffs and can also be found in Chesil Beach. THE GEOLOGY: A walk from the mouth of the River Otter Please remember it is illegal to remove along the beach and Esplanade and about All the rocks in this section are of Triassic pebbles from the beach. 500 metres or so along the beach to the age, in this case about 240 million years west of Budleigh exposes a wealth of old. The orange red colour tells us that interesting geology. they were formed in tropical continental (land) arid or semi-arid conditions. These HOW TO GET THERE: conditions are mirrored now on the northern edge of the Sahara Desert and Location: Budleigh Salterton, Devon 1. the Mediterranean coast of Africa. The GR SY 073820. reason for this is that the U.K. was located much further south during the Triassic in a 2. Reach Budleigh Salterton via the land locked location and was therefore dry A3052 from Lyme Regis and Exeter and (part of the Pangea supercontinent). then the B3178 from Newton Poppleford. Alternatively, from Exmouth use the B3178 The rocks dip gently to the east as can be to reach Budleigh. Park in the Lyme Kiln Car seen in the cover picture. Most of the Park at the end of road through the town at rocks are sandstones either formed in a GR SY073820. fluvial (river) environment or in a desert sand dune environment. It won’t always 3. Facilities. Budleigh Salterton is a be easy to determine this unless you have substantial centre with a range of shops, access to a hand lens with moderate cafes and restaurants especially in the magnification (X 10). The river sands have summer. angular quartz grains while those that formed the desert dunes are more HEALTH & SAFETY rounded (often called millet seed grains). 1. This coast section is relatively The red colour is developed because trouble free. However, there are most of the grains are coated in red iron oxide (hematite), again an indication that Above: Cliffs on the east side of the mouth sections of pebble beach to walk on of the River Otter at Budleigh Salterton. which is better achieved in good the sediments were formed in a continental environment. It may seem The red colour of the Triassic Sandstone shoes or boots. strange that rivers were flowing in an arid is clear and was formed in semi-arid environment, but consider the present- conditions found now in North Africa..