Leedon Tor, Dartmoor

Leedon Tor, Dartmoor

As readers will know from the preceding post I've been exploring the Dartmoor National Park again ;-) There is an area to the South and West of Princetown bounded by Leedon Tor, Ingra Tor and King's Tor that contains the old railway and some quarries.  This area looked interesting on the map but I was hesitant as its higher than most of the surrounding moor and the tor's didn't, on the map, look especially interesting.  A particular objective was to understand what opportunities the quarries might offer as I've got this Dwarf kingdom, Lord of the Rings type image lodged in my brain!

Just a reminder, click on the image to enlarge!

Starting at the Southern end, I climbed Leedon Tor and noted it had potential especially for a nice colourful sunset.  Moving North I explored the railway and the odd lonesome tree before stopping for lunch at Swelltor quarries.  Swelltor faces West and given the right lighting there should be nice black and white photographs, but being midday with high contrast and clear skies the atmosphere was all wrong.  A return visit is needed. ;-)  Continuing North, after lunch I arrived at King's Tor - a large and complex group of stones  - but I didn't see any simple arrangement that caught my interest.  A small tree on the South-East side does warrant future investigation though ;-)

I was back at Leedon Tor for the golden hour and watched the sun gradually sink to the horizon, but with a sinking feeling I knew nothing was going to happen.  The sky was almost cloudless and although there was a nice orange band at the horizon it just went dark. :-(  So, back to the pub and another pint of Jail Ale!  The next morning I tried again.  This time the lighting was better and as the first rays of sunlight caught the higher rocks and grasses it painted them in a nice warm soft orange colour.  The photograph at the top of this post captured the moment :-)

Looking at the photograph now I see a stack of rock half lit by the sun and it reminds me of another similar stack.  The Bownerman's Nose which featured in an earlier post here.

Andy