Sandy Bay is a secluded bay with a sand beach, about one mile long, near Exmouth, Devon, England. It is a sandy beach with rock pools at one end, it is backed by high cliffs, it is part of a long strip of sand which is connected to the beach at Exmouth at low tide. Nearby are the Orcombe rocks, which is a famous spot for fossils.
Sandy Bay is about sixteen kilometres south of the city of Exeter, four kilometres southeast of Exmouth and about eleven kilometres southwest of Sidmouth.
The seaside resort Bay is well known because of its Devon Cliffs. West of Sandy Bay are the Orcombe rocks, well known for its fossils. To the east is Straight Point, this headland is used by the marines as a firing range. Further to the east is Otter Cove, Littleton Cove and the village of Budleigh Salterton.
The Jurassic Coast stretches over a distance of 153 kilometres (95 mi), from Orcombe Point near Exmouth, in the west, to Old Harry Rocks on the Isle of Purbeck in the east [1]. The coastal exposures along the coastline provide a continuous sequence of Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous rock formations spanning approximately 185 million years of the Earths history.
The rocks dip gently to the east. Due to this tilting and erosion the oldest exposed rocks are found in the west, between Exmouth and Sidmouth, with progressively younger rocks forming the cliffs further east. The red sandstone cliffs at Sandy Bay are from the Triassic period and are important because they represent the earliest geology along the entire coast. They are predominantly composed of layers of "Aylesbeare Mudstone", but additionally with layers of sandstone, and date from 250 million years ago. Both sediments are markedly red, which indicates that they were formed in a desert. The sea water turns a murky red in stormy seas.
The localities along the Jurassic Coast includes a large range of important fossil zones.