Braunton Burrows marsh on the west side of the parish is a designated biosphere reserve, the first place in Great Britain to have gained such status.

[8] To the West of Braunton is Saunton and its beach and the sand dune system but bordering the village is what is reputed to be the largest remaining 'strip' farming area in the UK and which known as the 'Great Field' .

Probably from medieval times and continuing today, this large area has been opened tilled without formal boundaries, with at least 3 families still involved in production.

The sand was understood to have been examined by Exeter University, who considered it to have been a pocket pushed up by a glacier during the last ice age.

Despite being in operation for about 40 years, the softness of the water and minimal [resin] 'ion exchange' meant that the 'Steambloc' boilers needed no treatment or aggressive cleaning.

The royal manor was eventually split into three parts: Braunton Dean, which probably represented the land granted by King William the Conqueror to Algar the Priest at some time before the compilation of the Domesday Book of 1086.

It was created by a grant from the remnant of the royal manor of Braunton by King Henry III (1216–1272) to Cleeve Abbey in Somerset.

[13] In 1810 it belonged to William Courtenay, 9th Earl of Devon (1768–1835)[15] of Powderham Braunton Gorges,[16] was held by the de Sachville family.

[16] In accordance with the terms of the inheritance, as was then usual in such cases, Joseph Davie and his descendants adopted the arms and surname of Basset in lieu of their patronymic.

The grade I listed[22] parish church, dedicated to St. Brannock, is large and has a Norman tower topped by a spire.

At that time the Welsh Britons often raided their Dumnonian neighbours in North Devon, on the south side of the Bristol Channel.

Brannock probably came to North Devon with one such raid and is said to have landed at Saunton Sands, then dense woodland before later wind-erosion into sand-dunes, at the mouth of the River Taw.

A church, the first in North Devon, was built near where the Caen Stream began to spread its waters on the alluvial lands around the River Taw.

The story has it that Brannock tried to build the church on the hill overlooking the settlement but it kept being damaged by the weather and in a dream he saw a pigsty with piglets.

Wrafton almost adjoins to the south and some of its affinity, particularly economic, is with Braunton instead of its civil parish, Heanton Punchardon further along the straight, semi-coastal road towards Barnstaple.

WNW of the village centre is a modest farm, Fairlynch, followed by a farm-courtyard cluster of buildings, Lobb and then north, by three springs in a cleft (lowland half-bowl) of the Saunton Down upland ridge is a similar cluster, North Lobb with no road access from these places other than to Braunton but a footpath (Milkaway Lane) to Croyde and a similarly downhill branch to the south, Hannaborrow Lane to Saunton Sands.

The Museum of British Surfing opened in 2012 in the old goods shed of the old Braunton Railway Station on the Ilfracombe Branch Line.

[31][32] A number of major surf brands are associated with the village including Tiki, Board Barn, Tokyo, Demons Of Doom Killers, Rusty Peach, Modern Foam Designs and Salt Rock.