Braunton is an
English village,
civil parish, ecclesiastical parish and former
manor in North
Devon. The village is situated west of
Barnstaple. While not the
largest village in England, it is amongst the most populous in Devon with a population at the 2011 census of 7,353 people. There are two
electoral wards (East and West). Their joint population at the above census was 8,218. Within the parish is the fertile, low-lying Braunton Great Field, which adjoins the undulating
Braunton Burrows, the Core Area in
North Devon Biosphere Reserve, the largest
psammosere (sand dune system) in
England. It confronts the
Atlantic Ocean at the west of the parish at the large beach of
Saunton Sands, one of the
South West's international-standard
surfing beaches.