Shadows on a Holloway, Meldon

There's something about an old sunken lane that makes you wonder how many people have passed along it before you.

Near Meldon, on the northern edge of Dartmoor, this narrow holloway cuts through the woodland between steep, tree-covered banks. Generations of passing feet, hooves and wheels, together with the gradual erosion of the ground, can leave routes like this sunk well below the surrounding landscape.

The trees have grown around the lane, their twisting branches reaching overhead and casting long, intricate shadows across the uneven ground. With the early spring canopy still bare, sunlight finds its way through, picking out the stones, exposed roots and fallen leaves.

Further along, a wooden gate stands between old stone walls, separating the enclosed woodland from the brighter, more open countryside beyond.

It's the sort of place where you find yourself slowing down, noticing the shapes of the trees and wondering where the track might once have led.

I rather like the contrast between the darkness of the woodland and the sunlight beyond the gate. It gives an otherwise ordinary country lane a slightly mysterious character, as though there's another story waiting just around the bend.