# Is There a Piece of Middle Earth in Your Back Yard?



## baragund (Nov 12, 2003)

Hi Gang,

Are there any pieces of geography or land forms in the areas where you live that could be a fair representation of something in Middle Earth (or Aman, for that matter )

I got this idea last weekend when I hiked up a "mountain" that is about 30 miles or so northwest of Washington DC known as Sugarloaf Mountain. As I approached it, the look of it struck me a being a lot like Erebor. It sits by itself a few miles east of the Catoctins and the Blue Ridge so it's certainly "lonely". The Potomac River flows by not too far away so you can make an analogy to The River Running. It has some great cliffs for rock climbing.

Here is a web site that has some information on it so you can see what I mean. The pictures on the site really don't do it justice.

http://www.sugarloafmd.com/

Where else is there a piece of ME? And don't limit yourselves to the images and landforms created in the movies! If you have an image in your mind of, say, The Misty Mountains that you think is better than what was shown in the movies, tell us!


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## Gandalf The Grey (Nov 12, 2003)

Hail and Well Met, *Baragund!*  

* bows a greeting *

Thank you for starting this thread, and for sharing your description and picture of Erebor. I am fortunate to live surrounded by nature trails evocative of many contrasting portions of Middle Earth. 

One such trail looks just like Amon Hen, complete with the Seat of Power at the top of a rise. Though it be now a squarish block of crumbling stone overgrown with grass and moss, still, the Seat of Power keeps its recognizable shape. 

If you walk about a quarter mile down the same trail, you run straight into Fangorn Forest, with ledges from the Paleozoic era featuring jutting cliffs of old (roughly 320 million years ago) and trees growing out in all directions with bare roots large and knobby that look as if they're going to pull up and walk at any moment.

One park looks like Rivendell. Below I present a picture of Imladris. 

Rivendell Bridge 

And here is a picture of Lothlórien:

Lothlórien 

Another trail looks just like a path beside the winding Withywindle through the Old Forest. Here is a picture of what the Cuyahoga River looks like near Ira Rd. ... with the disclaimer that this picture is actually an artist's painting (artist's name is Douglas Eckhart I think) based on some other inspirational view of the Withywindle, real or imaginary.

http://www.douglas.eckhart.btinternet.co.uk/alan-lee-004thewithywindle.jpg 

Another set of trails resembles Buckland, in particular the path of dark evergreen trees where movie-Frodo hid from the Black Riders.

-- Gandalf the Grey


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## Aulë (Nov 12, 2003)

Behold: MORDOR!!
http://www.ga.gov.au/news/mordor.jsp

 

It's located in the Northern Territory in Australia. And it looks so much like Tolkien's Mordor, that the geographers named it 'Mordor Pound'


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## Talierin (Nov 12, 2003)

Rohan, aka South Park, Colorado


There's also a hill there that looks like Weathertop


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## kohaku (Nov 14, 2003)

south-east Ohio, with its low, wooded hills and farmland, reminds me a little of the Shire and surrounding wilderness.

I think that's awesome that there is actually a place called Mordor Pound.


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## Turin (Feb 6, 2004)

Its kinda like Rohan here in Ocala Florida, its winter now so my back yard(about 20 acres of field) looks like rohan, just a bunch of brown grass. Plus Ocala is the horse capital of the world . The woods around here look a little bit like the forests around the Anduin.


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## FIRELILY (Feb 6, 2004)

Turin said:


> Its kinda like Rohan here in Ocala Florida, its winter now so my back yard(about 20 acres of field) looks like rohan, just a bunch of brown grass. Plus Ocala is the horse capital of the world . The woods around here look a little bit like the forests around the Anduin.


If only Ocala had some hills or big rocks it'd come pretty close. 
I've often imagined that some of the places along the Santa Fe River looked like Lorien. Beautiful, serene and mysterious looking woods, small, clear cold springs popping out of nowhere. The Spanish moss is kind of hard to ignore though. It's just a little too tropical looking. l


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## 33Peregrin (Feb 6, 2004)

Talierin said:


> Rohan, aka South Park, Colorado
> 
> 
> There's also a hill there that looks like Weathertop




I've been there, and I was thinking Rohan too! It's only about two hours from where I live. 

Whenever I am walking my dog, I go to my old Elementary School, and I can pretend it's Rohan. The School, on a hill, is brick, but for me it's The Golden Hall. There is a huge field of grass behind it, that's the fileds. In the distance there are blue mountains covered in snow. There is even a playground (there are four playgrounds and two baseball diamonds, and a basketball court across the huge stretch of grass) that they put new equipment in, and I loved the old. The new one is purple plastic, I call it Isengard. So whenever I am walking my dog there, I make sure to listen to my TTT soundtrack.

I have gone on plenty of hikes that remind me of ME. I especially remember walking up Mt. Evans (It's in Denver) and it reminded me so much of everything. I was on the highest part of everything I could see around me, all the mountains. I looked... There was even a lake that reminded me of Mirromere. It was awsome! In the distance I could see a small silver light at the food of the distant mountains. I pretended it was Minas Tirith.
It might have just seemed like ME because there was a shop filled with LOTR stuff ( I call it the LOTR shop) in Idaho Springs, Colorado. I got back from the mountain 15 minutes too late to go inside!!!!!! But I won't start describing the store. It's too far from my house though, that I haven't been back.


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## Niirewen (Feb 17, 2004)

Unfortunately there isn't really any place close to me which reminds me of Middle-earth. But when I spent some time in the Cascades this past summer, it's beauty and magnificence definately reminded me of Middle-earth more than a few times (no place in particular, or that I can remember). I also find that especially when I am reading LOTR I tend to relate a lot of instances or places I come across to Middle-earth, even if they don't have much of a resemblance. I think it's wonderful whenever I'm able to see a bit of Middle-earth in our world.


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## Eledhwen (Jun 28, 2007)

Here's the place to put links or images of buildings that remind you of Middle-earth, trees that look like Ents, rivers that look like the Gladden Fields etc.

e.g.

This is the RHEGED centre in Cumbria, UK. Europe's largest turf covered building. Now... how's _that_ for a Hobbit hole?


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## YayGollum (Jun 28, 2007)

*Re: How's this for a Hobbit Hole? Tolkien-like places*

When I saw the first picture there, I was ready to declare it a lower middle class Dwarvish home, but the bird's eye sort of view made it look more like a decently-sized (as well as most probably nasssty ) hobbit place. If only the parking lot wasn't so close. Ah, I shall mayhaps search the internets for some Middle Earthish looking places. Later. Not now. Nothing comes immediately to brain. I'd be looking for Amon Rudh. *sniff*  Or mayhaps the Vale of Anduin, but that would be too easy.


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## Eledhwen (Jun 30, 2007)

*Re: How's this for a Hobbit Hole? Tolkien-like places*

I think they could film The Hobbit in The English Lake District. In my opinion there's nowhere more Shire-like than the Langdale Valley. Look at those little neat fields in the valleys, and the heather-clad hills with the blue ribbon of Lake Windermere in the distance. We were even greeted by a lone raven when we got to the top of this hill. It didn't caw; it clacked its huge beak at us.


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## Eledhwen (Jul 10, 2007)

*Re: How's this for a Hobbit Hole? Tolkien-like places*



baragund said:


> Here is a thread from a while back that gives some more examples of middle-Earth in our back yards...
> 
> http://www.thetolkienforum.com/showthread.php?t=13830



Perhaps one of the mods could look into merging the threads.

We have our own 'Sugarloaf' in the Brecon Beacons (in Welsh called Mynydd Pen-Y-Fâl). It's more spectacular than it's height suggests because of its relative isolation. That area of Wales (Brecon Beacons, The Black Mountains, Pembrokeshire) always feels strongly Middle-earthian to me.


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## YayGollum (Jul 10, 2007)

There ya go. *attempts to hide from his own inherently evil moderating powers*


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## Eledhwen (Jul 15, 2007)

Thanks Yay! Do you prefer to be thought of as moderately evil or evilly moderating?

I may have mentioned Sgwd yr Eira falls before, but here's a photo showing the path that runs beneath them. The 50ft falls on the Afon Hepste are in a lonely forested area in the Brecon Beacons, and invoke thoughts of Henneth Annun and Cabed en Aras.


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## Eledhwen (Aug 14, 2007)

*The Bridgnorth 'Hobbits'*

I remember being fascinated, a few years back, when I saw doors built into the craggy sides of a road in Bridgnorth, Shropshire, UK. I discovered that they were once homes. This thread reminded me of them, so I've been searching for evidence, and found this picture. Just look at the chimney stacks! If they only had round doors...
Incidentally, Bridgnorth is about 30 miles (an hour's drive through Birmingham) from Sarehole, where Tolkien spent his childhood; and a look at this web page shows that some of the cave dwellings were on Underhill Street! I think this one's my favourite.


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## Eledhwen (Feb 23, 2008)

Wiltshire and Rohan:




The county is stuffed with white horses carved onto hillsides, and in not far away Wales, 'march' is Welsh for 'horse'. and Here's a real barrow (wights removed, I expect)



Kennet Long Barrow; and for The Shire, we have the likes of Apple Tree Cottage at Burbage



which is actually available for holiday lets (Elgee - please note the cat flap).

There are only a couple of thatched dwellings left in my own home town; but one of them is the Five Bells pub!



However, for films, the county (Lacock in particular) is generally used for Victorian/Renaissance style stuff, like Harry Potter and costume dramas (P&P, S&S etc) and not Middle-earth *sob*.


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## Starbrow (Feb 28, 2008)

Thanks for the pictures. I wish I could see this places in person. Someday I hope.


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## Eledhwen (Feb 29, 2008)

Beware the Bilbo-like wistful longing; you may find yourself on an adventure!

Yes, there are places around England that Tolkien would still recognise. The nearby Cheddar Caves (where the cheese originated) were his inspiration for the Glittering Caves; which really do glitter when the stone is wet, as in this apparent waterfall which is actually solid limestone:




Tolkien was lucky to go there before tourist traffic through the caves got to the level where they were forced to put in concrete paths and steps for health and safety, or close the caves. Apparently, just warning people that they would be walking on a stalagmite floor was insufficient. The mind boggles ... and the heart weeps.


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## Eledhwen (May 9, 2009)

I've just been reading the Tom Bombadil threads, which reminded me of Rushey weir, near Buckland in Oxfordshire (a bit Tom would still be happy to reside in, maybe). Scroll down to the pen map - it could almost be in The Shire.


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