The Valley of Rocks

The Valley of Rocks is a dry valley on the northern coast of Devon in south west England. The particular character of this landscape dates from the Devonian geologic period of the Paleozoic, spanning 60 million years from the end of the Silurian, 419.2 million years ago, to the beginning of the Carboniferous, 358.9 million years ago, and named after the English county where rocks from this period were first studied. The periglacial features of the valley were formed when the area was at the limit of glaciation during the last Ice Age. The poet Robert Southey, visiting in 1799, described The Valley of Rocks as "covered with huge stones … the very bones and skeletons of the earth; rock reeling upon rock, stone piled upon stone, a huge terrific mass". The novel Lorna Doone, published by R. D. Blackmore in 1869, was partly set in the valley.