FEBRUARY 2023 · ADVENTURE
Dartmoor: Steeperton Gorge Camp
North Dartmoor, England
The constraint was a 35mm prime lens only. No zoom. Every frame you move for, you move your feet. It's a simple enough rule but it changes the edit: you can't compress the landscape from a distance, you can't pull a distant tor into the foreground. You work with what you can get close to.
Steeperton Gorge sits on north Dartmoor, just outside the Okehampton live firing range. The camp was in heather, the tent pitched among the moorland with distance behind it. The 35mm brought me into the stone. This is where it paid off.
A sheep skull on the grass in sunlight. Present and factual.
Steeperton Gorge — February 2023
Bronze Age hut circles on the moorland: stones arranged in rings on the grass, the circles visible from above but at ground level just individual stones at irregular intervals. A stone circle with standing stones on grass. A linear arrangement of stones across moorland. Cairns on the hillside. The archaeology is dense up here — 1700 BC, the vibe notes say, and the structures still readable. I kept moving close and then closer.
The granite detail: large broken slabs layered across a hillside, the horizontal bedding planes visible where the rock has split. Cracks running through the stone, precise as a diagram. Lichen on every surface, the grey-green growth covering everything that wasn't actively weathering. Stacked boulders with the moorland behind.
A sheep skull on the grass in sunlight. Present and factual.
Down in the gorge itself: moss-covered twisted trees beside moorland stream, the branches lichen-thick. Clear water running through grass and stone, the stream carving through heather. A stone chapel in a field beside moorland, the farmed valley land visible beyond the ridge.
A stone wall-lined path through woodland on the way back, the trees bare and gnarled above moss and leaf litter. Ancient lane. The kind of path that's been there longer than the surrounding moorland has been managed.
Bronze Age hut circle stones arranged in a circle across moorland grass
Backpacker walking across bare moorland towards distant moorland
Bare twisted tree over still water in a moorland stream
Tent pitched among moorland heather with distant moorland backdrop
Stacked granite boulders with moorland landscape in background
Large broken granite stone slabs layered across moorland hillside
Cracks running through layered granite stone slabs on moorland
Granite rock formations with dried grass at Steeperton moorland
Boulder-strewn moorland ridge with distant moorland valleys
Single stacked stone cairn in moorland landscape
Rolling moorland under dramatic cloudy sky, valley in distance
Stream cutting through moorland heather and stone-strewn valley
Rolling moorland hills under stormy sky with dark shadows
Moss-covered twisted trees beside moorland stream
Lichen-covered branch and stream flowing through moorland valley
Clear moorland stream winding through grass and stone landscape
Moorland stream carving through heather with rocky banks
Rocky stream flow through moorland grass and bog vegetation
Mountain stream descending through moorland with distant hills
Stone chapel beside moorland with fields beyond
Tent camped at moorland stone structure with distant landscape
Cairn stone structure on moorland hill with valleys beyond
Sheep skull on moorland grass in sunlight
Twin furrows cutting across moorland landscape
Bronze Age stone circle with standing stones on moorland grass
Linear line of stones arranged across moorland landscape
Ancient stone structure on moorland ridge above farmed valleys
Stone wall lined path through moorland forest with moss-covered trees
Gnarled tree-lined path over moss and leaf litter in woodland
Ancient wooded lane with moss-covered stone wall and bare trees