Mountain Building Era - 300 million years ago
From Babbacombe Downs the view stretches many miles across Lyme Bay. Red sandstones take you as far as Budleigh Salterton in East Devon and then into the haze the younger cliffs of the Jurassic and Cretaceous Period extend towards Portland.
At Babbacombe Downs the limestone cliffs are actually upside down compared to the time of their formation. So how did it happen? Around 300 million years ago there were only two huge continents on planet Earth. Plate tectonic movements caused those two continents to "crash" and, over many millions of years, intense pressures squeezed all the sediments that had been laid down in the Devonian, piling them up to form a vast mountain chain.
On a local scale this major episode in the earth's history had a fundamental effect on the rocks of Torbay. Sediments were folded and fractured as they were crumpled and pushed northwards by the collision and on Babbacombe Downs the pressure was so great that a large fold was turned over on itself literally turning the sediments upside down. The dark slates at the bottom of the cliff are actually younger than the pale limestones of the Downs at the top!
