What is Berry Head?

Berry Head is a limestone peninsula rising 200’ (65m) from the sea, forming the southern arm of Tor Bay. It is a 100-acre National Nature Reserve, holding some nationally rare plant and animal species and as a result is part of the European-wide Natura 2000 network; it is also a Country Park that forms the main recreational area for the nearby town and port of Brixham (population 16,000). The site holds two well-preserved Napoleonic War-era Forts and important Second-World War heritage and lies within the South Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and on the South West Coast Path.

Why is Berry Head important?

The rare plants that grow on its thin, dessicated limestone soils form a community that is not found anywhere else in the UK. A colony of Greater Horseshoe bats lives in caves in the limestone, a species that is protected by international statute because of its rarity and the steep decline in its numbers across the UK. The colony of Guillemots breeding on the cliffs is the largest on the Channel coast and the most southerly in the UK. At the same time the Head is hugely popular with walkers, day-trippers, fishermen, rock-climbers, naturalists, historians and picnickers, making it one of Torbay’s top ten most visited attractions

.In 2005, with the support of a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, we agreed a new and comprehensive Conservation Management Plan for Berry Head. You can download this plan here. It sets out our principles and aims for Berry Head, the main features of interest, the issues affecting them, how we aim to tackle them and how we aim to work with people to improve their experience of the site and its heritage.

Since 2005 we have been working on a set of detailed proposals to turn these aims into reality and following an application in January 2008 to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant to support this project, we learnt in June 2008 that our application had been successful. The project is called “Berry Head On the Edge” and you can find out more about it here.

Visit the Berry Head Rangers blog, here, for regular updates on wildlife and all the other things that happen on site.