About us

Blackdown Hills Online is a website for all residents and visitors to the Blackdowns Hills.

The Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, on the Somerset/Devon border, is a special place for those born here, for those who have chosen to live and work here and also for the many visitors who enjoy their unique character. The hills stretch from a steep wooded north-facing scarp which dips southwards as a flat-topped plateau, dissected by deep secret valleys. On the tops are open, windswept spaces; in the valleys villages and hamlets nestle among ancient patterns of small, enclosed fields and a maze of winding lanes lined with high hedgebanks. It is a true living landscape with a strong sense of identity where traditional land management and rural skills flourish. Sparsely populated with widely distributed communities, it is quite unlike the nearby market towns.