Yorkshire Matterhorn

Early April. With little opportunity for photography for a couple of months, it was good to get out and about again, especially to somewhere I've seen but never before visited. 

Roseberry Topping, the so-called Yorkshire Matterhorn, stands just over a thousand feet on the northernmost edge of the North Yorkshire Moors, looking down on Middlesborough and Cleveland. Its shape was created by an odd mix of geology (sandstone laid down around 200 million years ago) and a mining collapse in 1912 (not visible in this image).

Bronze Age remains have been discovered on the slopes of Roseberry, and the place held great significance for everyone from the Vikings to the hundreds of people who have carved their initials in its rocks over the last couple of centuries. Captain James Cook lived nearby in his youth (before the designation "Captain" had been bestowed, presumably!) and made the Topping and its surrounding slopes a regular playground when he wasn't helping out in the family farm.

This image doesn't present the classic Matterhorn shape, but instead gives weight to the Cleveland Way path, leading the eye sinuously from foreground to summit. It was taken mid-morning, so of course the light could be better, but as a composition and portrait of the hill on the day, I think it works.

Camera settings: Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm lens at 28mm; 1/160 second at f/11, ISO 200  


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