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.