After exploring and photographing the Somerset side of the Blackdown Hills, the plan now was to explore the remainder across the border in south east Devon. Would combine locations in the Blackdown hills and East Devon down to the coast.

The Blackdown Hills AONB joins with East Devon AONB down to the coast. So being based in Honiton puts you right in the middle of the two. Small car journeys to locations on the Devon side of the Blackdown Hills or similarly down to the coast.

Hembury Hillfort Blackdown Hills Devon

The first evening stopped off at the Hembury hillfort on the Devon side of the Blackdown Hills. Small free carpark with short walks along footpaths to the main site of the Hembury Hillfort.

Good view west from Hembury Hill to the hills of Dartmoor in the distance. With Dartmoor being my next destination after the Blackdown Hills. Looks like it could be good for a sunset so the intention was to hang around until then. In the meantime would walk the ramparts and check out the area. Hembury hillfort is meant to be one of the finest in Devon. Around the edges of the ramparts are some ancient woodland in the form of Beech trees.

Come golden hour those Beech trees around Hembury hillfort were catching the golden hour light beautifully. Up to this stage had been shooting handheld, with some fine compositions decided to mount the camera on a tripod to get a sharper and better quality image and not have to worry about long exposures.

Carried Away

Put my rucksack down on the ground as I began to frame compositions and then moved along the tree line. Eventually after sometime made my way back up onto hilltop as in the first photo. Was considering a sunset shot and changing lenses. Its then I realised had left my bag on the ground at least 500 metres back. Panic struck! as I ran back to the location where I started. Thankfully the bag was still there with £1000s worth of lenses and equipment inside. This is due to the bag being camouflaged and not many people(bad) about else could have been a disaster – no insurance either. Done this sort of thing a few times even on this trip, got to be careful. I had got so carried away photographing those beautiful sunlit trees that forgot about everything else for a time.

Branscombe Beach East Devon

The next morning from Honiton made my way down to the Devon coast on Branscombe beach. There is a pay and display carpark close to beach. It was very windy, blustery with the sunlight breaking through the clouds sporadically. The cliffs in this area are steep, decided to just walk the beach, checking the tide tides.

If you walk east along Branscombe Beach it will bring you to Beer. Walking west will bring you to Sidmouth. Branscombe beach had lots of rocks and boulders providing foreground interest. What works best for such compositions is long exposures using a ND filter with the tide waters circling around the rocks. The morning side light gives depth and dimension to the beach rocks. Wearing wellingtons when on the beach helps too. Another good technique is to keep shooting the same frame and later time blend the best parts of each post processing.

Blackbury Hillfort

Blackbury camp is another hillfort situated in Southleigh in the AONB of East Devon. There is a small free carpark directly adjacent to Blackbury hillfort so a small walk inside the ramparts. As with a lot of the hillforts it contains some beautiful ancient woodland.

There was some very good light, front lighting the trees with dark moody clouds behind, really like the contrast of these type of shots. Blackbury hillfort really shines during spring when the ground is covered in bluebells. When visiting a new location is always good to look at images of the area online to get some idea of where the best compositions are and when is the best time to visit.

Peak Hill Sidmouth

Peak Hill west of Sidmouth is another great coastal area to explore in east Devon in the west country of England. You can park for free at Mutters Moor carpark, there are then lots of trails to follow from this location.

When I arrived at Peak Hill the weather was changing for the worst and cut short my scout of the area. Managed to get a shot of High Peak from the edge of Peak Hill and the sea stack. You will notice the brown colour of the sea close to the cliffs. Its more than a snapshot, I was in the area with an expensive camera and lens with bad weather and took the photo with some good light on the cliff face. It rained heavily for the remainder of the day.

Dumpdon Hillfort

Actually visited Dumpdon Hillfort on the homeward bound leg of the roadtrip to the west country of England. Glad I did not miss visiting Dumpdon Hillfort, it commands some of the best views across the Otter valley and the Blackdown Hills.

Dumpdon hillfort is not so easy to get to. Need to take a long single track lane to the location. Just hope a big tractor is not coming in the opposite direction. At the top of the hill is a small free carpark. When I visited was the backside of storm Eunice so was still very windy, wet and overcast. Hunted around for some compositions.

Weather check

Leaving Dumpdon Hillfort, the weather changed for the better and the Otter valley would have been bathed in sunlight. Its important to check the local weather forecast when in a location and wait around if its about to change for the better. There were signs the weather was about to change, with the sun making a few brief appearances more frequently, so the clouds were thinning.

That wraps up my visit to the Blackdown Hills and East Devon AONB. Next stop would be Dartmoor.

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