Orcombe Point

Orcombe Point marks the western end of the World Heritage Site, here is an excellent place to see the rock and geoneedle.

The Geoneedle was unveiled by HRH Prince of Wales in 2002 to inaugurate the World Heritage Site. It is constructed from stone representing both the major building stones of the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site and the sequence of rocks deposited along the site.

The Triassic Coast

Dramatic cliffs of red rock are the distinctive feature of the East Devon Coast. This is the Triassic Coast , and the geology here records conditions on land between 250 and 200 million years ago. Although most of the Triassic rocks do not contain fossils, they do display many clues that enable us to reconstruct a series of desert environments, with sand dunes, salt lakes, lagoons and rivers. The rusty reds and oranges of the Triassic rocks are due to their origin. Iron minerals have weathered to produce the spectacular colour of the cliffs, and this is the tell-tale sign for geologists that these rocks formed on land in hot, arid conditions. At Exmouth, Budleigh Salterton and Sidmouth there are clues to the different environments that existed when East Devon was a desert.

A walk around the base of Orcombe Point at low tide reveals the cross bedded sandstones which formed in rivers due to current action on the sand grains, as is the case today. During dry periods sand was blown out from the riverbeds to form sand dunes in the nearby desert.