Babbacombe Bay is a South-East

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

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 ...

''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, also known as the Dorset and East Devon 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 ins ...

(mainly in

Dorset Dorset ( ; Archaism, archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Somerset to the north-west, Wiltshire to the north and the north-east, Hampshire to the east, t ...

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

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

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

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

, 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 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 Paignt ...

, 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 parishes in England, civil parish in the English county of Devon. It is on the north bank of the estuary mouth of the River Teign, about south of Exeter. The town had a population of 14 ...

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 a ...

. 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 (Lo ...

. 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 spe ...

Dawlish Dawlish is a seaside resort town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Teignbridge district in Devon, England. It is located on the south coast of England at a distance of from the city of Exeter and a similar distance from the to ...

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. Sand in several places, and cliffs are often red and derived from Permian New Red Sandstone, interspersed with outcrops of Devonian Limestone.

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