Plumpton Rocks

Plumpton Rocks near Knaresborough 04 ©Carl Milner 2013

On what was a beautiful crystal clear winters morning, it was so sad to stop and see a place that was once graced by great brush of William Turner is now nothing more than a weekend roadside stopover for visiting people to Harrogate or Knaresborough. Even on this weekday morning when I pulled over, the place was closed with nowhere to park, but I was undeterred and with a willingness to see what laid beyond the ‘KEEP OUT ..”CLOSED” gate, I armed myself with the ‘trusty’ camera I ventured/vaulted over the gate.

What awaited me was nothing short of magical, I could see why Edward Lascelles, 1st Earl of Harewood commissioned Turner to produced his two serene landscape paintings of the place, the lake was a Titanic’esque‘ mill pond and the rocks had an amazing winter colour with some crazy shades of mutant lichen on them.

Plumpton Rocks by J.M.W.Turner 1798
Plumpton Rocks by J.M.W.Turner 1798

I managed to take only a brief amounts of photographs, but in my opinion this place is such a hidden gem on the door step of our County of Yorkshire and deserves more than just a fleeting ‘urban’ visit from a passerby like me and my camera….

28 thoughts on “Plumpton Rocks”

  1. I’m glad you ventured in to take the photos. I didn’t realize that was where Turner painted that from, so am glad you shared it too. What a cool place! Although you wonder how wrecked it would be if they let the tourists in.

    Nancy

  2. Wonderful … what a photo and how fun is that Turner has painted exacts the same spot. I think your photo is fare better than his painting. Not I prefer photos to paintings.
    Your addition photos are magical … special the one with the rainbow – my pick of today.
    Have a lovely weekend.

Leave a reply to Carl Milner Cancel reply