Mermaid's Pool to Rowden Gut

Mermaid's Pool to Rowden Gut is a geological Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in north-western Devon in England.

It comprises a 5.5km-long stretch of coast between Mermaid's Pool in the north-east and Rowden's Gut in the south-west.

The sea cliffs expose the only available complete sequence through the Bideford Formation of the Culm Measures, which consists of alternating layers of mudstones, siltstones and sandstones [1] that were deposited in a wide range of deltaic environments during the Carboniferous period.

It borders on a reef of hard sandstone which stands out against the surrounding gullies formed of easily eroded softer mudstone, now covered in algae.

[3] There is bladder wrack growing in the area supporting a population of flat periwinkles, which are otherwise not found on the rocky platforms to the east in Westward Ho!