Mouthmill Beach is a National Landscape and Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Blackchurch Rock is named because the huge outcrop evokes the splendor of a temple and its two arches are said to resemble "gigantic doorways".
The strata lines around Mouthmill Beach cliff twist and turn in a very dramatic way.
Its strata was twisted during the creation of the Pangaea super continent over 300 million years ago.
A towering monument in an ancient landscape
The rocks began forming as deep-water deposits of mud and sand around 320 million years ago, and contain evidence of marine animal fossils.
The rocks here pre-date the Triassic period by millions of years, so contain no dinosaur fossils.
"Opened are the double doors of the horizon; unlocked are its bolts."
— Pyramid Texts ~ 2345 BC
"On the pyramid of the Black Church Rock, which stands in summer in such calm grandeur gazing down on the smiling bay, with the white sand of Braunton and the red cliffs of Portledge shining through its two vast arches"
— Charles Kingsley: His Letters and Memories of His Life (1877)
You can order prints of these photographs to support the website.
This website is a love letter to the North Devon coast.
Mouthmill beach is accessible by public footpaths from Higher Clovelly, Brownsham, or the North Devon Coastpath.
Blackchurch Rock was recently placed as the number one sea stack in the country by BBCs Country File.
"This towering, pyramidal formation, rising like a battle-scarred shark fin from the shallows of the Atlantic Ocean"