THESE incredible images showing off the beauty of our county have netted their creators first place in a photography competition.

James Loveridge took the image of Colmer’s Hill at Sunset, to take first prize in the Dorset AONB category in the competition, which was run by the AONB team in partnership with the South Dorset Ridgeway.

And Michael Brown won the South Dorset Ridgeway category with his picture of the Hellstone.

Highly commended were Paul Hayes, Owen Vatchel and Rosie Matheson in the AONB category and Tony Gill and Rosie Matheson in the South Dorset Ridgeway category.

Sue Dampney, communications officer, for the AONB said: “We have been thrilled with the submissions – over 100 people submitted photos, so we had over 300 images to choose from - favourite views, great days out, anywhere that had a particular significance, or memory. The winners really captured the tremendous variety in our landscape and impactful beauty of the area. Our winning entry taken at Colmers Hill by James Loveridge really summed that up for us.”

James Sharpe, South Dorset Ridgeway, landscape partnership manager and part of the judging team said: “Overall the standard was incredibly high, and we had a tremendous job choosing the winners. This part of Dorset is literally full of monuments and marks in the land left by people who have lived here over thousands of years. There are even more here than around Stone Henge. But this ridgeway is often overlooked for the more obvious landmarks, so we are really pleased to be able to showcase some of these amazing images. The winning photo of 'The Hellstone' taken by Michael Brown was chosen for strong composition, light and texture and celebrates the ancient character of the Ridgeway.”

The winners received vouchers for use at Wessex Photo.

Everyone who entered the competition will be invited to an awards evening to open a companion exhibition at Durlston Castle in Swanage in January 2017.

The winning entries will also be used in future AONB publicity material.