Devon ( ) is a large county in South West England. The county is also referred to as Devonshire, but that is an entirely unofficial name, rarely used inside of the county but often indicating a traditional or historical context. The county shares borders with Cornwall to the west and Dorset and Somerset to the east. Its coastline follows the English Channel to the south and the Bristol Channel to the north. It is the only county in England with two separate coastlines.

Devon is the third largest of the English counties and has a population of 1,109,900. The county town is the cathedral city of Exeter, and the county contains two independent unitary authorities: the port city of Plymouth and the Torbay conurbation of seaside resorts, in addition to Devon County Council itself. Plymouth is also the biggest city in Devon. Much of the county is rural (including National Park) land, with a low population density by British standards. It contains Dartmoor 954 sq km (368 square miles), the largest open space in southern England .

The county is home to part of England's only natural UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Dorset and East Devon Coast, known as the Jurassic Coast for its geology and geographical features. Along with its neighbour, Cornwall, Devon is known as the "Cornubian massif". This geology gives rise to the landscapes of Dartmoor and Exmoor, which are both National Parks. Devon has seaside resorts and historic towns and cities, and a mild climate, accounting for the large tourist sector of its economy.

History

main: History of Devon

Toponymy

The name 'Devon' derives from the name of the Celtic people who inhabited the southwestern peninsula of Britain at the time of the Roman invasion c. AD 50, known as the Dumnonii, thought to mean 'deep valley dwellers'. In the Brythonic Celtic languages, Devon is known as Dyfnaint (Welsh), Devnent in Breton and Dewnans (Cornish). (For an account of Celtic Dumnonia see the separate article.)

William Camden, in his 1607 edition of Britannia, described Devon as being one part of an older, wider country that once included Cornwall:

There is some dispute over the use of 'Devonshire' instead of Devon,Who: date=March 2008 and there is no official recognition of the term 'Devonshire' in modern times, except for the name of the Devonshire and Dorset Regiment. One theory is that the 'shire' suffix is due to a mistake in the making of the original letters patent for the Duke of Devonshire, resident in Derbyshire.Who: date=March 2008 However, there are references to 'Defenascire' in Anglo-Saxon texts from before 1000 AD (this would mean 'Shire of the Devonians'), which translates to modern English as 'Devonshire'. The term Devonshire may have originated around the 8th century, when it changed from Dumnonia (Latin) to Defenascir.

Human occupation

Devon was one of the first areas of England settled following the end of the last ice age. Dartmoor is thought to have been settled by Mesolithic hunter-gatherer peoples from about 6000 BC. The Romans held the area under military occupation for around 250 years. Later the area became a frontier between Brythonic Dumnonia and Anglo-Saxon Wessex, and it was absorbed into Wessex by the mid 9th century.