Tamar Valley National Landscape

Tamar Valley National Landscape sits at the heart of the Devon and Cornwall border, weaving together river estuaries, wooded valleys, pastures and a striking industrial-heritage legacy.

Its rich natural capital and cultural heritage offer compelling opportunities for business investment in habitat restoration, regenerative farming, sustainable tourism, and green-finance backed nature recovery. 

Open the drop-down box for a quick overview of the assets and opportunities in Tamar Valley: 

Welcome to Tamar Valley National Landscape 

The Tamar Valley National Landscape covers about 190 km² (75 sq miles), and designated in 1995, it is England’s youngest National Landscape.

Stretching across the lower valleys of the River Tamar and its tributaries the River Tavy and River Lynher, this landscape features a tapestry of salt-marsh estuaries, ancient oak woodlands, pasture, hedged farmland, steep wooded slopes, and a granite ridge, home to iconic landforms like Kit Hill.  

The valley’s visual character is shaped by its riverscapes: estuaries fringed by woodlands, reed beds and mudflats; wooded valleys rising to granite ridges; and a mosaic of small fields, hedgebanks, and historic farmsteads. This diversity gives the valley high wildlife value, aesthetic richness, and a deep cultural landscape marked by centuries of farming, market-gardening and a remarkable mining heritage, now part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape UNESCO World Heritage Site.  

The core team of the National Landscape Partnership, backed by a consortium of local authorities, landowners, community groups and conservation bodies, implements a statutory management plan focusing on nature restoration, green finance, climate resilience, and community wellbeing.  

For businesses, Tamar Valley offers a powerful landscape-scale investment canvas where funding can drive habitat restoration, regenerative agriculture, ecological connectivity, sustainable heritage tourism and climate-resilient land use, delivering tangible biodiversity, carbon, community and ESG returns. 

Natural capital assets and opportunities

Here are the key landscape character features found in the Tamar Valley that can form the base of exciting business project opportunities: 

• Estuarine and tidal habitats (salt-marsh, mudflats, reedbeds): supporting marine biodiversity, flood regulation, blue-carbon potential, and estuary ecosystem services. 
• Broadleaved and ancient woodlands along rivers and steep slopes: carbon storage, water regulation, wildlife habitat, soil stability, native biodiversity. 
• Pasture, hedged farmland and low-intensity agriculture: supporting soil health, pollination, regenerative agriculture, food production and rural livelihoods. 
• Historic mining heritage landscapes, industrial archaeology and restored quarries: cultural capital, heritage tourism, education, community identity and place-based value. 
• River valleys, wetlands and riparian zones: water regulation, flood mitigation, wildlife corridors, fish and bird habitat, natural floodplain services.