Welcome to the English Riviera Geopark

Welcome to the English Riviera Geopark Website.
You are at the »Home Page.

Welcome to the English Riviera Geopark Website

Welcome to the English Riviera Geopark and a landscape of dramatic changes, of exploration and discovery.

A landscape untouched by glaciation, revealing stories unseen elsewhere in the world. Stories of tropical seas and scorching deserts, raised beaches and drowned forests, hippopotami and mammoth, straight-tusked elephant and sabre-toothed tiger, cave bear and earliest man.

The international importance of Torbay’s geology is undeniable, 32 geosites covering a story of 3 geological time periods, all found within a compact area.

We hope you enjoy visiting us.

Occombe Beach, Kents Cavern and Sharkham Point

NEWS

Situated within the stunning, rolling hills of South Devon, Torbay’s geology has created the beautiful coastline of today, which fundamentally links the rich diversity of landscape with wildlife, people and culture.

Combining the three towns of Torquay, Paignton and Brixham the sheltered southeast facing bay became a Victorian seaside resort of great style and refinement and acquired the name of the “English Riviera”.

What is a Geopark?

European Geoparks Network (EGN) aims to protect geo-diversity and to promote geological heritage to the general public as well as to support sustainable economic development of geopark territories primarily through the development of geological tourism

The European Geoparks Network has signed formal agreements with UNESCO’s Division of Earth Sciences giving the network UNESCO endorsement and giving the EGN responsibility for regulating membership of the UNESCO Global Network of Geoparks in Europe. For information on the European Geopark network visit The Eurpoean Geopark website by clicking here.

Our Patron - Dr Iain Stewart


			Television’s favourite geologist Dr Iain Stewart has become patron of the English Riviera geopark. Dr Stewart is best known for presenting television series such as Journeys from the Centre of the Earth, and the award winning BBC series Earth — The Power of the Planet. However his familiarity with Torbay comes from bringing students on field trips. He hopes that as patron he will be able to encourage more to share his enthusiasm for the dramatic events and changes which have shaped the English Riviera Geopark over millions of years and to gather support in the wider community for the European Geopark Network. “The English Riviera Geopark is great because it is within an urban area, but you can still tell a lot of the story of Britain, and the dramatic changes which have taken place, for example in climate, from looking at the different ages and types of rocks found in the area. For example down at Hope’s Cove you find rocks laid down at a time when Torbay was in a Caribbean-type ocean, then at Oddicombe beach you are among rocks formed in desert, Sahara-type wadis. A geopark is also about telling the human stories, such as when the Ice Age came and what the humans were doing then. “I think rocks themselves can be boring. You can pick up a totally nondescript pebble, but when you realise that pebble is there because it was washed down in a desert flood 300million years ago, that’s an exciting story.” Please click here to read Dr Ian Stewarts biography.

Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust 2007