The slow cooling of the magma made the granite coarse-grained, and if you pick a piece up you will be able to see that it is made up of three minerals (glassy quartz, feldspar and shiny flakes of mica). On a larger scale, the cooling of the magma also gave rise to the joints visible in the area’s sheer blocky cliffs.

The schist forms jagged pinnacles above the Coast Path around Bolt Head. You may also notice it in some very distinctive stone hedge banks that you can see close to the Path.

Torbay, despite being a built up area, has some spectacular Coast Path scenery and geology. Here the rocks were literally turned upside down by earth movements during a mountain building phase 280-300 million years ago. Large scale folding and faulting of the rocks can be seen around Thatcher Rock and Hopes Nose. At Meadfoot strange fossils in the limestone tell us about tropical reefs of the Devonian period. Around Goodrington, younger rocks that formed as the mountains were eroded in a hot arid environment, contain boulders and pebbles from the older limestones and shales. These red beds form the headlands at Livermead and Roundham Head.

In 2007, the importance of this geological heritage was recognized when the English Riviera Geopark was designated. Recognised by UNESCO and one of only seven geoparks in the UK, it consists of 32 separate sites. Most of which lie along the route of the Coast Path. Between them they cover 3 geological time periods and no less than 400 million years of earth history.

Each of the World Heritage Site’s 95 miles offers something new to discover, but here are a few of the more visible features, easily seen from the Coast Path...

The red rocks for which Devon is so well-known are seen in the cliffs between Exmouth and Sidmouth. Their vibrant rusty colour shows they were formed in desert conditions; these prevailed in the Triassic Period, 250-200 millions years ago.

The Undercliff National Nature Reserve between Seaton and Lyme Regis is formed from landslips, as sandstones overlie clay and rain reaching the clay layer has made one layer slide over another. On Christmas Eve 1839, an enormous landslide took place at Bindon. A huge piece of land, known locally as Goat Island, moved towards the sea, leaving a deep chasm. Landslides still occur today, making the Undercliff a very wild and special place.

Chesil Beach is over 17 miles (28 km) long and is made up of shingle and pebbles which increase in size towards the east (smugglers apparently knew exactly where they had landed on the beach from the size of the pebbles). There is still debate about how Chesil Beach was formed, although the traditional view is that it has been driven onshore by rising seas levels following the last Ice Age, about 7,000 years ago.

The Isle of Portland’s geology is dramatic. West Weare Cliffs rise majestically from the sea displaying layers of Portland Limestone, Portland Sand and Kimmeridge Clay. On the east of the Island look out for the stunning fossil forest, where doughnut- shaped blocks of limestone indicate where tropical trees were swamped some 135 million years ago. Natural fractures or 'gullies', as they are known locally, criss-cross the Island.

The perfect horseshoe bay of Lulworth Cove was developed where a stream breached the limestone, allowing the sea to enter and hollow out the softer clays behind the limestone barrier. The back wall of the bay is formed by more resistant chalk. Beside Lulworth another bay is forming at Stair Hole. Here you will see the famous Lulworth Crumple - a complex fold formed by major earth movements at the time when the Alps were formed.

The sheer cliffs of the Purbeck coast are formed by Portland Stone and Purbeck Limestone, rocks that are well-displayed in the old cliff quarry workings at Seacombe, Winspit and Dancing Ledge. The area is also famous for the tracks of dinosaurs such as Megalosaurus and Iguanodon, and for an internationally important fossil record of mammal evolution.