Devonadministrative, geographic, and historic county of England, forming part of the Southwest Peninsula of Great Britain and bounded on the west by Cornwall and on the east by Dorset and Somerset. The administrative, geographic, and historic counties cover slightly different areas. The historic county comprises the entire geographic county, as well as a small area along the border of the district of West Dorset in the administrative county of Dorset and a larger area extending west from Werrington along the River Otter within the historic district of North Cornwall in the administrative county of Cornwall unitary authority. The geographic county of Devon is England’s third largest. It encompasses the administrative county and the unitary authorities of Plymouth and Torbay. The administrative county comprises the districts of East Devon, Mid Devon, North Devon, South Hams, Teignbridge, and Torridge; the borough of West Devon; and the city of Exeter.

Within Devon’s boundaries is a wide variety of scenery, including the Dartmoor National Park and, in the north, part of the Exmoor National Park. Dartmoor, with shallow marshy valleys, thin infertile soils, and a vegetation of coarse grasses, heather, and bracken, is a granite plateau rising to more than 2,000 feet (600 metres), the crests capped by granite tors (rocky peaks); the moor is used for rough grazing, reforestation, reservoirs, and military training and is a popular area for tourists. Exmoor, reaching more than 1,575 feet (480 metres), is another plateau where rough grazing and tourism are important, but it has more farmland than Dartmoor. These two areas of moorland contain the main sources of rivers for the county. From Dartmoor the rivers flow in a radial pattern to the north and south coasts and to the River Tamar (the Cornish boundary); from Exmoor they flow seaward via the River Exe and northward to the Bristol Channel. Much of central and northwestern Devon is given over to grassland. The soils in South Hams, south of Dartmoor, often produce good farmland. The most fertile soil is in southeastern Devon. The county’s generally mild climate becomes more extreme with elevation and distance from the sea, and rainfall increases from about 30 inches (760 mm) on the south coast to more than 60 inches (1,500 mm) on Exmoor and 80 inches (2,000 mm) on Dartmoor.






Devon’s main centres of population are coastal, except Exeter. The three main urban areas that act as the major retail and service centres are Plymouth, Exeter, and Torbay. Exeter, a cathedral city and university city, is the long-established seat of county administration. Area administrative county, 2,534 square miles (6,564 square km); geographic county, 2,588 square miles (6,703 square km). Pop. (2005 est.) administrative county, 731,000; geographic county, 1,109,900.