Exmoor Coastal Heaths () is a 1758.3

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100-metre sides (1 hm2), that is, square metres (), and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. ...

(4344.7 acre)

biological Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain, or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland, is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

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 ...

and

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

, notified in 1994. This site lies within the

Exmoor National Park Exmoor () is loosely defined as an area of hilly open moorland in west Somerset and north Devon in South West England. It is named after the River Exe, the source of which is situated in the centre of the area, two miles north-west of Simons ...

, and contains extensive areas of heathland communities. Associated particularly with the coastal communities and woods are a wide range of nationally rare and scarce plants. The site comprises four separate blocks (between

Combe Martin Combe Martin () is a village, Civil parishes in England, civil parish and former Manorialism, manor on the North Devon coast about east of Ilfracombe. It is a small seaside resort with a sheltered cove on the northwest edge of the Exmoor Nati ...

and

Minehead Minehead is a coastal town and civil parish in Somerset, England. It lies on the south bank of the Bristol Channel, north-west of the county town of Taunton, from the boundary with the county of Devon and close to the Exmoor National Park. T ...

) centred on Trentishoe, Cosgate Hill, Countisbury and North Hill. There are two nationally rare, endemic

whitebeam The whitebeams are members of the family Rosaceae, tribe Malinae, comprising a number of deciduous simple or lobe-leaved species formerly lumped together within ''Sorbus'' s.l. Many whitebeams are the result of extensive intergeneric hybridisa ...

species which occur in the woodland areas namely '' Sorbus subcuneata'' and '' Sorbus vexans''. Several nationally scarce plant species are found within this site; white mullein (''Verbascum lychnitis'') in its yellow form occurs in fields at the edge of the site, Cornish moneywort ('' Sibthorpia europaea'') beside streams, rock stonecrop ('' Sedum forsteranum'') on rocky seacliffs and sea storksbill ('' Erodium maritinum''), upright chickweed (''Moenchia erecta'') and bird's-foot clover (''Trifolium ornithopodioides'') all in areas of very short turf. A nationally rare

butterfly Butterflies are winged insects from the lepidopteran superfamily Papilionoidea, characterized by large, often brightly coloured wings that often fold together when at rest, and a conspicuous, fluttering flight. The oldest butterfly fossi ...

the

high brown fritillary ''Fabriciana adippe'', the high brown fritillary, is a large and brightly colored butterfly of the family Nymphalidae, native to Europe and across the Palearctic to Japan. It is known for being Great Britain's most threatened butterfly and is li ...

(''Argynnis adippe'') occurs on this site.

References

{{SSSIs Somerset biological Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Devon Sites of Special Scientific Interest in Somerset Sites of Special Scientific Interest notified in 1994 Exmoor Heaths of Devon