This landscape at its core comprises a central plateau landscape which is elevated, exposed and open in character and which fans out into narrow ridges at its edges where it is fringed by steeply sloping wooded greensand edges and farmed slopes which descend into river valleys. The interplay of open, elevated plateau (with its regular enclosure pattern and beech hedges, outgrown beech hedges and pine shelterbelts), the steeply sloping fringes (which are cloaked in woodland), and the farmed valleys (with small scale irregular enclosures) gives this landscape its distinctiveness. The expansive plateau and prominent beech shelterbelts, in particular, distinguish this area from the East Devon Central Ridge found further south and east. In places there is a sense of bleakness about the longer views across unbroken stretches of plateau.
This area comprises an open, exposed inland plateau which fans out as narrow fingers towards the edges, fringed by steeply sloping, wooded greensand and more gentle wooded valley slopes particularly in the Culm Valley. The northern boundary to this area is formed by the Blackdown Scarp, and the southern boundary by the Clyst Lowland Farmlands which extend into the upper Otter valley around Honiton. To the west the landscape rapidly drops into the Culm Valley Lowlands while to the east it is defined by the East Devon Central Ridge and upper slopes of the Axe Valley.
https://www.devon.gov.uk/planning/east-devon-area/blackdown-hills
https://www.devon.gov.uk/planning/planning-policies/landscape/devon-character-areas
Planning Strategy