Cottage left teetering on cliff edge after massive Jurassic Coast landslip

A house has been left teetering on the brink of a 122m (400ft) drop after a massive cliff fall along the Jurassic Coast.

The collapse last weekend of a huge portion of the cliff at Jacob’s Ladder Beach between Sidmouth and Ladram Bay saw tonnes of debris come crashing down and prompted the local authority to close the popular coastal path in Devon for safety reasons.

It caused a smaller rockfall directly below a thatched cottage, leaving it just 12m (40ft) from the edge of the unstable Sidmouth cliffs.

Dramatic aerial pictures show just how close the thatched cottage is to the cliff edge – as well as the magnitude of the landslip when part of the 185 million-year old sandstone cliffs collapsed.

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“Following a cliff fall at Jacob’s Ladder Beach in Sidmouth, we’d like to remind visitors to keep their distance from cliffs along the East Devon coastline,” East Devon District Council warned in a social media post.

“Cliff falls are a natural and unpredictable occurrence along the East Devon coast.

“This is because the rock from which the cliffs are formed is soft, and therefore prone to rock falls, and landslides, which can happen at any time.”

The local authority reminded visitors to “stay well clear” of the cliffs when walking on the beach, with the coastguard advising that beach users put a distance equivalent to the height of the cliff between them and the cliff base.

Following a similar collapse at the same location last year, coastal scientist Vicky Walkley had warned cliff falls were “very difficult” to predict, and could be contributed to by both heavy rainfall and warm sunshine.