Photos of Great Bowerman's Nose
About Great Bowerman's Nose
Bowerman's Nose stands on open moor above the village of Manaton, over on the eastern side of Dartmoor. It's a column of weathered granite about six and a half metres tall, sitting on the north western shoulder of Hayne Down with a scatter of fallen blocks below it. The stone lookings like a figure in a hat watching over the valley below, which is where the name comes from and where the story starts. Local legend has it Bowerman was a hunter who angered a coven of witches and got turned to stone and his hounds became Hound Tor, a mile down the moor. The ground drops away west and north from here, so evening is the ideal time to be up there. The low sun spreads across the moor into the granite, picking out every crack and patch of moss on it. Standing on the downhill side lets you capture the granite column as he stands tall looking down over the valley below. Moving round to set up on the eastern side of him instead and you can put the whole column into silhouette against the sunset. Getting up here is fairly straighforward. You can easily park at Manaton car park or at the Hound Tor car park by Swallerton Gate, and from either one it's a short walk on lanes up to the open moorland. Weather changes fast up here, and that's worth planning around rather than avoiding, plus mist coming through around this stone giant is a picture in its own right. (Manaton, Devon, England)
