Cliff close to Exmoor National Park

It is the highest coastline in England and Wales, with a ridge of coastal hills rising to 1450ft at Culbone Hill. Great Hangman has a cliff face of 800ft at an angle in excess of 60 degrees, gaining its entry in The Guinness Book of Records as the highest sea cliff on mainland Britain.

For the most part the cliffs are known as 'hogsbacked', meaning that the upper part of the cliff slopes more gently than the lower part. The term was coined by Edward Alexander Newell Arber who, in 1903, began a geographical survey of the coast between Porlock and Boscastle. Much of the ninety miles he covered on foot along the foreshore with the exception of the section between Woody Bay and Combe Martin which he considered inaccessible except by boat. However, it still took Arber five years to traverse the rest of the Exmoor part of his study area, because much could only be accessed at extreme low tides.

Modern rock-climbing techniques have since allowed people to traverse the parts Arber could not reach. Cyril Manning and his wife Pat were responsible for opening up much of the 'inaccessible' Cliffs at Martinhoe section. They were able to climb through areas where previous explorers had been forced to swim. In 1976 Cyril led climber Terry Cheek into the section between Woody Bay and Heddon's Mouth, which had become known as the 'Inner Sanctuary'. Here was a hidden place with a waterfall as high as Niagara, four-hundred-foot gullies and 'zawns' with vertical walls, some of which would wait another twenty years before they would be climbed. Two years later Terry set off with three others to become the first to traverse the entire coastline from Foreland Point to Combe Martin without resorting to swimming. It took four and a half days to complete. In recent years, local climbers Simon Mooney, Norman Barnes and Martin Crocker have pioneered many new routes but, even now, only about twenty people have traversed the whole coast. Compare this with two thousand who have climbed Everest!

Cyril, from Woolacombe, was a bird watcher and geologist as well as a climber. He was warden of the RSPB reserve at Spreacombe near Braunton and undertook annual bird counts, making use of his climbing skills. During the early part of June each year he would climb down at three points between Woody Bay and Heddon's Mouth and stand on rocky pinnacles from which he could observe the birds. On Wringapeak can still be found the ruins of a stone windbreak that he built as a bird hide. When he became too old for the climbing he would observe from the boat of the late Dr Ernest Mold from Lynton. Nowadays a count is still made from Wringapeak but climbing is not encouraged in the nesting season. There was an infamous incident in the 1960s when a young climber broke a limb when descending onto Wringapeak to watch the birds.

Exmoor’s coastline is the highest in England. Cliffs rise to 250m (820 ft) and coastal hills to 433m (1420 ft). On exposed cliffs nesting birds include guillemots, razorbills, kittiwakes, ravens and rare peregrine falcons. Some areas sheltered from the Atlantic gales have natural woodland almost down to the beach where sessile oak, yew and rare whitebeams grow.

The rocky beaches are regularly scoured by the very high tides but there are plenty of seaweeds and molluscs. Protected by the shingle beach at Porlock is a saltmarsh where you might see curlews and oyster-catchers as well as unusual plants, including seablite and glasswort, which used to be used in glass making.

The cliffs along this coastline mainly face North or NE and are protected from the prevailing South Westerly winds.

The wooded cliffs near Culbone

They are the highest cliffs in England (Great Hangman is the highest sheer cliff at 800ft/244m). The sheltered aspect has allowed the development of coastal woodland which is predominantly oak. The woods between The Foreland and Porlock represent the longest stretch of coastal woodland in England and Wales and run right down to the shore in many places. The rare Exmoor 'hogs-back' cliffs are dramatic and awe-inspiring.

Foreland Point

The Exmoor coast is one of the most unspoilt and best protected stretches of coastline in England and Wales.

Gillimots on the Bristol Channel Exmoor Cliffs

Gillimots on the Bristol Channel Exmoor Cliffs

Waterfall on the Bristol Channel Exmoor Cliffs

Razorbills

See also:

• Beaches

Contributed by: Fred Bingham