The Changing Seasons of Dartmoor

The UK is a special place for landscape photographers, and I feel fortunate to live here. Every season dramatically changes the feel of the landscape and provides photographers with both opportunities and challenges. Those seasonal changes can also be seen at a local level where areas of the UK celebrate special natural events such as bluebells in Dorset, the autumn colours of the New Forest, or snowdrops in north Yorkshire.

But for me, the local seasonal event that I get most excited about occurs in late summer when the heather blooms across Dartmoor. I’m slightly biased as Dartmoor is my local area, but the purple heather adds a splash of colour to an already dramatic landscape. The other thing I like about the heather season on Dartmoor is that it lasts. Peak bluebells on Dartmoor, or thrift on the Cornish coast might only last a couple of weeks, but the heather will stay strong for 6 to 8 weeks. The longer something is about, the more opportunities there is to photograph it.

With this knowledge, I decided that I would focus my efforts this summer on capturing a series of strong heather themed photographs. Even if the weather was poor for a week, or I was away, I'd still have plenty of opportunities to get up onto Dartmoor and photograph locations I know are good for heather, or perhaps even discover some new ones.

So how did I get on? Well, I didn't get out as much as I wanted (no surprise there!), but I did get out enough times to create a collection of Dartmoor heather photos. It was a decent season, lasting nearly 8 weeks and I'm happy with the results. I do however appreciate that heather season finished a couple of months ago, but I'm finally ready to share it with you, and the photographs I captured. Enjoy!

Do you have a favourite seasonal event to photograph? Let me know in the comments below.

My Dartmoor Heather Collection for 2025