A Long, Featureless Walk

Wild Tor is wild by name and wild by nature. It’s one of Dartmoor’s most remote tors and no matter which direction you come at it from, it will be a long walk. Not that a long walk is a bad thing on Dartmoor. If it’s a 7km walk to a tor worth photographing, then I’m more than happy to put in the effort. Besisdes, they do say it’s about the journey and not the destination.

Having walked to Wild Tor before I was keen to try an alternative route. Normally I’d walk in via Oke Tor and Steeperton Tor, but for this adventure I decided to start in Belstone village and head up to the summit of Cosdon Beacon, track along to Little Hound Tor, and then straight along to Wild Tor. On paper, this looked like a lovely route.

The trek up from Belstone village to Cosdon Beacon was a bit of slog. I couldn’t find a clear path, so I mostly had to follow animal tracks to the summit. It seemed to take ages but when I finally made it the views were dramatic. I could see for miles in all directions.

I could also see my next waypoint, Little Hound Tor, which was almost on a straight track south. The walk was easy enough, but despite some clear views, it wasn’t exactly the most exciting of walks. Don’t get me wrong, a walk on Dartmoor is rarely something I regret and I certainly wasn’t regretting this walk, it was just this route was a little featureless and dull. Maybe I was just feeling a bit grumpy!

**Wild Tor #1, Dartmoor National Park, Devon** - Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 17mm, f/11, 1/50 sec at ISO 64.

Feeling Isolated and Remote on Dartmoor

The last stretch of my walk to Wild Tor was familiar enough, and soon I had reached my destination. If a feeling of isolation or a sense of being away from it all is what you are after, then Wild Tor is the location for you! It’s one of the reasons I love going there. I rarely see anyone else and there’s not a road of building to be seen for miles!

While I love the way Wild Tor makes me feel, it’s the opportunity to photograph this magical tor that makes me undertake that long walk.

**Wild Tor #2, Dartmoor National Park, Devon** - Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 17mm, f/11, 1/50 sec at ISO 64.

Well, I say magical, but when I got there and I had a wander about, I felt decidedly uninspired! Maybe I was in a grumpy mood or perhaps I had over hyped Wild Tor in my head. Was the alure of how remote this Dartmoor tor is was skewing my judgement?

Sometimes though, a lack of creativity is a temporary thing. So, I had a sit down, ate a snack and enjoyed the view. Sure enough, a little rest and food allowed me to reset, and I was soon feeling inspired! And once you feel like you capture one good image, it’s easier to carry on capturing more.

**Wild Tor #1, Dartmoor National Park, Devon** - Nikon Z8, Nikkor Z 14-30mm f/4 S at 15mm, f/13, 1/6 sec at ISO 64.

A Different Vision of Wild Tor

The first photographs I captured are from viewpoints that I’ve shot from before. They are photographs that are very much in my style of Dartmoor photography. But as the sun got lower in the sky what cloud there was started to clear leaving bright blue skies.

Not to be put off by the clearing skies, I decided to look for a composition that didn’t depend on an interesting sky. I soon found what I was looking for! What interests me about this new composition is that it not only features a new angle on a tor I’d already photographed, but the postioning of the three rock stacks is something I’d not seen on Dartmoor before. It’s this composition that makes these photographs uniquely Wild Tor.

After a few hours of feeling a little grumpy, I left Wild Tor feeling great and inspired to come back. I even enjoyed the walk home….though I did take an alternative route back!