Paul Templing – Crowns Engine Houses, Botallack, Cornwall

For hundreds of years, these iconic buildings have survived the Cornish elements, a testament to their ingenious and robust construction. At high tide, the Atlantic waves swirl in all directions, putting on a dramatic show of power and ferocity. Just imagine how these brave tin miners must have felt as they descended into the shaft, which extends half a mile from the coast below the sea bed!

Overall winner: Matt Emmett – RAF Hospital Nocton Hall, Lincolnshire

This 400-metre-long corridor forms part of an old hospital last used by US military stationed in the UK during the first Gulf war. The site was loaned to American forces in 1984 as a site to treat injured soldiers flown back from Iraq, but only 35 patients were treated there. The site was handed back to the UK in 1995 and remains derelict

Mathew Browne – Wat Mahathat, Ayutthaya, Thailand

Wat Mahathat is a 14th-century temple reduced to ruins in 1767 when the Burmese army invaded Ayutthaya. Over time, a tree has grown around one of the remaining stone Buddha heads, such that it is now completely enclosed by its roots with only the face peeking out

Kaiyu Lu – Ruined Great Wall, China

A quiet winter morning after Chinese new year. I was strolling on the ruins of the Great Wall, built in 1680. I seemed to hear crossing swords and horses neighing

Felipe de Castro Horta Hoffmann Martins – Ganges River, India

Mornings on the river Ganges are often covered with a haze that melts with pollution. The chaos of the landscape inspires the most varied photographs. Varanasi is a world of history, where the sacred is always in evidence. The photo features a daily scene in India’s holiest site

Peter Perry – Elvis, Bad Nauheim, Germany

Elvis Presley in front of the Dankeskirche while he was serving in the US army, 1959

Public vote winner: Jenna Johnston – Jedburgh Abbey, Scotland

This photo of the 12th-century Augustinian abbey Jedburgh was taken on a class trip in 2011. That class, and that trip, sparked my enduring love for medieval architecture

Kyle Wood – Lincoln Cathedral

A long exposure light trail shot of Lincoln Cathedral

Brendan Conway – Blean Nuclear Bunker, Victory Wood, Kent

Opportunities to visit such nuclear bunkers are rare, but the community group Forgotten Front Line and the Woodland Trust recently arranged a day for public access. Although the structure itself, built in 1966, is not particularly remarkable, the experience of visiting it provides a glimpse back to the dark days of the cold war and what might have been. This is the welcome view as you climb up the ladder to the hatch

Eric Houlder LRPS – Battlefield of the Winwaedfield, AD 654/5

A colour infrared image of this battle site, whose name means ‘the wading-place of the river Went’. It was taken in the 70s, but it is only with the advent of modern software that the full beauty of the picture, and the data it holds, can become apparent. The crop mark near the bottom looks very like a Roman mansion, or posting station, alongside road M28b

Pamela Jones – Train Cemetery, Bolivia

Just outside Uyuni, Bolivia, trains were abandoned decades ago and left to rot at 3,656 metres (11,995ft). Built by the British, the railway transported minerals to the Pacific coast until the mining industry collapsed in the 1940s

Daniel Sands – WW2 Air Raid Shelter

I was given access to a secret restored second world war bunker. With the help of a local electrical fitter we installed lighting and haze in order to achieve this final image. Slight tweaks were made to contrast and conversion to mono for final presentation. • The historic photographer of the year awards is a joint venture between two cultural brands, Trip Historic, the leading online travel guide to the world’s historic sites, and History Hit, which brings unique content and insight from some of the UK’s best known historians and academics. Official partners include the television channel History and the Royal Photographic Society, the UK’s oldest and largest photography membership organisation.

All images courtesy of historic photographer of the year