145 - Exmoor : Analysis: Landscape Attributes & Opportunities

Analysis supporting Statements of Environmental Opportunity

The following analysis section focuses on the landscape attributes and opportunities for this NCA.

Further analysis on ecosytem services for this NCA is contained in the Analysis: Ecosytem Services section.

Landscape attributes

A diverse landscape of uplands, plateaux and coastal vales, often contrasting dramatically from surrounding lowlands.

Justification for selection:

• The upland landscape, and particularly that which lies within the Exmoor National Park, is particularly distinctive as recognised by residents and visitors alike.
• The plateaux landscape to the west of the area is equally distinctive, but of a more pastoral, less diverse character.
• Distinct, intimate and fertile coastal vales at Dunster and Porlock, and historically important field-systems at Braunton contrast with the upland landscapes.

A complex and dramatic coastline of headlands, steep vegetation-clad cliffs and combes, often cloaked with ancient, oak-dominated woodland, waterfalls and coves, exposures of Devonian strata, fine sandy beaches, a distinctive long shingle ridge at Porlock Bay and sand dunes at Braunton Burrows.

Justification for selection:

• The coast is visually outstanding, almost all within and at the heart of either the National Park or North Devon AONB, and designated as Heritage Coast.
• Cliffs, some of the highest in England, plunge as precipitous, vegetation-clad slopes to the sea with waterfalls cascading down deep combes between sheltered coves.
• Fine sandy sheltered beaches popular with visitors.
• The geological exposures, a special feature of the North Devon coast add to the drama with complex folding and strata clearly visible.
• The diversity of coastal features is added to by the shingle ridge at Porlock Bay, which is within Porlock Marsh SSSI, and a prime example of a drift aligned barrier, the sand dunes, the largest in England, at Braunton Burrows (SAC), and mudflats and estuarine features at Ilfracombe and Barnstaple respectively.
• The coastline has the longest stretch of coastal woodland in England between The Foreland and Porlock.

Steep-sided valleys containing fast-flowing rivers and streams, often with ancient, oak-dominated woodland on middle and lower slopes.

Justification for selection:

• Off of the high moorland and pastoral plateaux to the west of the area, broadleaved woodland is a defining element of the landscape, as well as comprising one SAC and 3 NNRs.
• The woodlands contribute to the area’s diversity and sense of place, as well as the local economy supporting timber production and game shooting businesses.
• The rivers and streams, particularly the Barle, are renowned for the quality of their salmon and trout fishing, but also provide places of intense tranquillity and restfulness.
• In winter, the fast-responding rivers and streams can become powerful forces; violent and occasionally destructive.

An open, mainly treeless moorland plateau at the heart of the area, with extensive tracts of heather, blanket bog, mire, grass heath and bracken traditionally grazed by sheep, cattle, Exmoor ponies and herds of red deer.

Justification for selection:

• Important deposits of peat, and extensive heaths and moors much with SAC status and incorporating numerous SSSI, comprised of several priority habitats (including upland heath, blanket bog, purple moor grass and rush pasture).
• The openness of the area enables long views and creates a sense of elevation and freedom, and removal from modern clutter and bustle.
• Exmoor ponies and one of the largest herds of red deer in England are highly characteristic features of the area and much valued by local residents and visitors alike. The Exmoor pony is a rare breed (as classified by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust).
• As with many upland areas, sheep are a defining component of the landscape. The Exmoor Horn breed is particularly well-adapted to this southern, upland environment, and is of importance to the area.
• Cattle are a feature of the lower slopes and more pastoral valleys, and local breeds, particularly Red Devon, tend to be favoured.

A long history of human occupation is evident in the numerous heritage assets to be found across the landscape.

Justification for selection:

• The story of human occupation is told by the many, and often protected, heritage assets to be found; prehistoric barrows, stone circles, rows and settings, hill-top enclosures, early settlements, Roman iron workings at Dulverton, water mills in the Porlock and Dunster Vales and on most streams and rivers, and 19th century industrial activity, parkland and estates on lower slopes.
• The Exmoor area contains 338 Scheduled Ancient Monuments, a wealth of Listed Buildings, six registered Historic Parks and Gardens, and undoubtedly a vast amount of undiscovered buried archaeological assets.

A distinct and varied pattern of fields, enclosure and settlement reflecting a long and ongoing history of agricultural activity and dispersed occupation.

Justification for selection:

• Large rectilinear fields of 19th-century origin extending high up to the moorland edge and across the western plateau, bounded by beech-topped hedgebanks grown out to form wind-pruned lines of beech trees.
• Ancient, irregular fields surrounding the moor, and occasionally across the western plateau enclosed by hedgebanks, occasional stone faced.
• Preserved medieval open-field system at Braunton Great Field.
• The scarcity of settlement in the open moorlands and high plateaux contributes to the area’s sense of peace and tranquillity.
• A unifying vernacular architecture of local stone and simple whitewashed dwellings reinforces an historic and traditional sense of place, closely linked to the evolution of the landscape.
• Occasional relict orchards adjacent to settlements and farmsteads in valleys and more sheltered lower slopes.

A landscape of great tranquillity and calm with dark night skies, particularly on the moorland plateau.

Justification for selection:

• The Exmoor National Park area has recognised as an International Dark-Sky Reserve; the first in Europe.
• Some 87 per cent of the area is classified as undisturbed in CPRE’s Intrusion Map, with the central moorlands, in particular, an area of great tranquillity.

Landscape opportunities

• Conserve the landscape’s local distinctiveness and high levels of tranquillity with exposed high open moorland and a spectacular, varied coastline contrasting with more intimate wooded valleys, ancient pasture fields, mixed agriculture and historic settlements.
• Protect from damage and appropriately manage the area’s rich cultural heritage, most notably bronze-age and iron-age remains, hilltop enclosures and earthworks, Roman military sites, iron workings, water mills and other industrial heritage assets, linhays and other vulnerable structures, and estates and planned landscapes.
• Continue to allow natural coastal processes to occur, creating and maintaining the dramatic and diverse coastal landscape of cliffs, shingle ridges, rocky and sandy beaches, sand dunes, saltmarsh and coastal heath.
• Actively manage and, where appropriate, expand areas of semi-natural, broadleaved and wet woodland along valleys and combe slopes. Expand the area of woodland within farmland (particularly on more intensively farmed slopes), creating links to hedgebanks forming a connected and resilient network of habitat.
• Positively manage and reinforce the rectilinear pattern of 19th-century beech hedgebank enclosures on the moorland edge, reinstating coppice management and re-laying over-mature sections of hedge. Manage and restore the hedgerows and stone walls surrounding the ancient irregular fields off the moor to strengthen distinctive field patterns.
• Manage through extensive grazing and appropriate levels of swaling, the open heather moor, re-linking remnant areas of heather moor and maintaining the open character of the landscape. Further extend connectivity by the reversion, where appropriate, of areas of conifer plantation to open moorland when plantations reach maturity.
• Manage sustainable populations of the Exmoor pony and red deer herds and encourage the use of local, distinctive breeds of sheep, such as Exmoor Horn (all important for the extensive grazing of the open moorland), and cattle, such as Devon and Devon Red, where appropriate.
• Manage and extend the internationally important wetland habitats of the central moorland (blanket bog, valley mire, wet heath and rush pasture) to form a strengthened and more climate change-resilient resource.
• Plan and prepare for coastal change as a result of climate change, including through extending and restoring habitats (internationally important areas of coastal and floodplain grazing marsh, saltmarsh, mudflats and sand dunes), realising options for future adaptation, including managed realignment.
• Plan for the creation of new broadleaved woodland and coastal habitat mosaics to provide the landscape settings to the main settlements on the periphery of the NCA (Minehead, Ilfracombe, Braunton, Barnstaple) to provide robust attractive new landscapes. Incorporate access for the surrounding populations, as part of green infrastructure proposals linking into the heart of urban areas and outward to the boundaries of Exmoor National Park area.