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Thunacar
Knott
Location: Lake
District,
Central Fells
Grid Ref: NY
279079
Height: 2372 ft (723
m)
Status: Wainwright,
Nuttall
Notes: Thunacar
Knott is entirely undramatic yet strategically quite important, for
it's the highest part of the ridge immediately to the rear of the
Langdale Pikes, which effectively all radiate from it. However, it's
not untimately the parent fell as that honour goes to High Raise, a
mile to the north. It's a fair bet that Thunacar Knott has never been
climbed on its own account, merely visited as an afterthought by those
ascending the Pikes, but it does provide some quite dramatic views of
its offspring. Perhaps the easiest approach is from Easedale via
Sergeant Man, though it's crossed almost by default by those walking
from the Pikes to High Raise or vice versa. |
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Tom
na Gruagaich
Location: Scottish
Highlands,
Torridon
Grid Ref: NG
859601
Height: 3025 ft (922
m)
Status: Munro,
Murdo,
Marilyn
Notes: Formerly just
the southern top of Beinn Alligin, Tom na Gruagaich was promoted to
Munro status in 1997. The summit is beautifully situated at the
southern end of the great sandstone terraces of Toll a Mhadaidh Mor,
the eastern side of Alligin, and surprisingly it's Gruagaich rather
than Alligin's principal summit of Sgurr Mhor that carries the trig
pillar. Views of Sgurr Mhor, the other Torridon hills, Loch Torridon
and the whole sweep of Wester Ross, are awesome. The map doesn't show
it but there's a decent path all the way up starting at the Coire Mhic
Nobuill car park above Torridon house, via Coire nan Laogh. The path is
steep and a good deal of effort is required.
Photo by Graham Jackson. |
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Torlum
Location: Scottish
Highlands, Perthshire
Grid Ref: NN
819192
Height: 1289 ft (393
m)
Status: Marilyn,
Yeaman
Notes: Torlum is a
minor summit situated a few miles west of Crieff in Perthshire. The
lower slopes are wooded, the upper slopes heathery. The easiest access
is by a forest path from the vicinity of Ballochargie to the east;
there is a path up to the summit dome but peversely it is more easily
found on the descent. The Strathearn towns of Comrie and Crieff are
well seen, while the Ochils occupy the southern arc of the view and Ben
Chonzie and its neighbours tower over the scene to the north.
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Twmpa (a.k.a. Lord Hereford's Knob)
Location: Black
Mountains
Grid Ref: SO
224350
Height: 2264 ft (690
m)
Status: Hewitt,
Nuttall
Notes: Twmpa is a
bluff, the steep northern end of the ridge neighbouring that of Black
Mountain, and it is very similar in appearance to its eastern neighbour
Hay Bluff (seen in the summit picture, left). Twmpa is best climbed
from the car park at the summit of Gospel Pass, from which it's a
deceptively easy stroll of some 25 minutes. The view is very similar to
that from Hay Bluff, taking in the Black Mountains to the south, the
Brecon Beacons to the southwest, and the rural expanses of Powys and
Herefordshire to the northwest and northeast respectively.
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Walbury
Hill
Location: Berkshire
Downs
Grid Ref: SU
373616
Height: 974 ft (297
m)
Status: Marilyn
Notes: This
unassuming summit is the high point of the West Berkshire downs and is
also the highest point within 75 miles of London. It rises above the
scattered village of Inkpen a
handful of miles south west of the market town of Newbury. It's
possible to drive almost to the summit; roads cross the ridge a few
hundred yards away both to the east and west. Non drivers can walk up
from Kintbury station on the Great Western railway line from where it's
just over three miles, or the Newbury - Hungerford bus will get you to
Upper Green just a mile away. The ridge path misses the summit by a
hundred and fifty yards but it's a simple enough matter to shin over a
gate and take the short path to the trig pillar. Pleasant pastoral
country surrounds the hill though the best views are had from the
slopes to the north overlooking Newbury. |
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Walna
Scar
Location: Lake
District,
Southern Fells
Grid Ref: SD
257963
Height: 2037 ft (621
m)
Status: Nuttall
Notes: The
highest Lakeland top not to feature in Wainwright's guides, Walna Scar
lays just south of the pass of the same name between Coniston and
Dunnerdale and is a continuation of the southern ridge of Dow Crag. The
top is grassy and unexciting and it's easy to see why Wainwright did
not consider it to be part of "proper" lakeland fell country, yet it is
but a four-minute detour from the path and can be climbed from Coniston
village in little more than an hour. Dow Crag and its tops dominate the
view to the north while the shapely cones of Caw and Harter Fell
(pictured) feature prominently to the south and west respectively. |
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Walton
Hill
Location: Worcestershire,
Clent Hills
Grid Ref: SO
942797
Height: 1037 ft (316
m)
Status: Marilyn
Notes: Walton Hill is
the highest of the Clent Hills, a groups of heathland tops in north
Worcestershire immediately south of the Birmingham / Wolverhampton
conurbation. Walton Hill itself is a pleasant sandy ridge, mostly
wooded, and criscrossed by a maze of footpaths and bridleways. It lays
only two miles from Halesowen and is thus very accessible from the
city; the nearest public transport access is the village of Romsley.
The top is a bare 10 minutes of ascent from the nearest road, and
Birmingham dominates the view through the whole northern arc. The view
southwards is a complete contrast, taking in the pastoral countryside
of the Severn vale fringed in the distance by the Cotswolds, the
Malverns and Bredon Hill.
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Wansfell
Pike
Location: Lake
District, Far Eastern Fells
Grid Ref: NY
394041
Height: 1581 ft (482
m)
Status: none
Notes:
Confusion surrounds Wansfell. The fell and the summit seen here is
Wansfell Pike, which stands proudly above Ambleside to the east. But it
is not actually Wansfell proper, which stands a kilometre northeast and
is several feet higher, and furthermore is actually given as Baystones
(q.v.) by all references except Wainwright. None of this takes anything
away from Wansfell Pike, of course, which is a fine little summit just
an hour's climb from Ambleside. There is an excellent view of the town
and down the length of Windermere, and further afield the Langdales,
Bowfell and Crinkle Crags look especially inviting from here. |
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Watch Croft
Location: Cornwall
Grid Ref: SW
420357
Height: 827 ft (252
m)
Status: Marilyn
Notes: Watch Croft is
the highest point of the Land's End peninsula and is therefore
Britain's southwesternmost Marilyn. The terrain is rugged and thorny
and an easy ascent is a matter of finding the start of the correct path
from the road, which is at approx SW 415361. There is a parking place
several hundred metres to the west. Follow the track up to an old mine
building and then take a fainter track to the left; the summit is in
view and is obvious. The best feature of the view is the rugged North
Cornwall coastline; the other coast, just east of Penzance, can also be
seen.
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Watch Hill
Location: North
West Cumbria
Grid Ref: NY
159318
Height: 833 ft (254
m)
Status: Marilyn
Notes: Watch Hill
lays a couple of miles northeast of Cockermouth in Cumbria, just off
the edge of the Lake District. A public bridleway, adopted as part of
the Allerdale Ramble, runs up to the ridge; thereafter it's a simple
grassy ridge to the summit. The ridge has three tops; Wainwright chose
the westernmost for his Outlying Fells book but it's the easternmost,
just to the west of a forest plantation, that is the highest. From the
top Skiddaw, the Whinlatter group and the Lorton Vale fells are seen
from an unfamiliar angle, but the greater part of the panorama consists
of Cumbria's pastoral northwest. The Solway Firth and the Dumfriesshire
coast
should be visible on clear days.
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Wendover
Woods (a.k.a Haddington
Hill)
Location: Chiltern
Hills,
Buckinghamshire
Grid Ref: SP
890089
Height: 876 ft (267 m)
Status: Marilyn,
County
Top (Buckinghamshire)
Notes: Haddington
Hill is
the highest point of the Chiltern Hills, a chalk scarp northwest of
London.
Like many high points of scarps, the highest point is not actually a
point
at all, but an area - moreover, one that occurs deep in Wendover Woods
somewhere within an extensive car park and within a hundred metres of
an
ice cream van and a public convenience. Wendover Woods are lovely,
however,
and a circular walk from the town to the summit and back makes a nice
half
day walk. There's no view.
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Wether
Hill
Location: Lake
District, Far Eastern Fells
Grid Ref: NY
455167
Height: 2198 ft (670
m)
Status: Wainwright,
Nuttall
Notes: It's likely
that a good many walkers stroll across the summit of Wether Hill
without even realising they've done so, for the gradients either side
of it on the ridge path are imperceptible and there's little feeling of
being on top of something. The fell stands part way along the northern
section of the High Street ridge, between the more notable tops of High
Raise and Loadpot Hill. The Hight Street ridge path is the obvious
approach. The view, like the fell, is unremarkable but does include the
Helvellyn group to the southeast and the Cross Fell group way to the
northwest.
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Whernside
Location: Yorkshire
Dales,
Ribblesdale
Grid Ref: SD
738814
Height: 2416 ft (736
m)
Status: Marilyn,
Hewitt,
Nuttall, County Top (North Yorkshire)
Notes: The highest
of the
celebrated Three Peaks of the Yorkshire Dales, and the highest summit
in
Yorkshire, Whernside stands between the heads of Ribblesdale and
Deepdale
and overlooks the famous Ribblehead viaduct from the northwest. The
hill
is a long ridge with a steep southeastern flank, which makes a direct
ascent
from Ribblehead very hard work. A drystone wall (marking the boundary
between
the districts of Craven and Richmond) follows the top of the ridge,
accompanied
by a broad pathway, and at the summit itself the wall is formed into a
pair of wind shelters. The summit can be reached in about two hours
from
Ribblehead station, and the choice of two ascent routes can be combined
into a circular walk (up one way, down the other) of around four hours.
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Whinlatter
Location: Lake
District,
North Western Fells
Grid Ref: NY
196249
Height: 1722 ft (525
m)
Status: Wainwright
Notes: Whinlatter
is the fell
that has given its name to the high road between Braithwaite and
Cockermouth,
and to the forest plantations on its slopes and those of the
surrounding
fells. Easily ascended from the visitor centre at the top of Whinlatter
Pass, the highlight of its summit view is that of the Grizedale Pike
group
to the south. Wainwright actually chose the west top as his summit but
it's the east top (seen here) that is higher.
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White
Maiden
Location: Lake
District,
Southern Fells
Grid Ref: SD
254957
Height: 2001 ft (610
m)
Status: Nuttall
Notes:
White Maiden is an outlier of Walna Scar, itself a satellite of Dow
Crag in the Coniston group, and just qualifies as a Nuttall. Its
splendidly rocky summit marks it out as a rather more interesting place
to be than Walna Scar itself, and further interest is added by the
adjacent meeting point of two beautifully constructed stone walls.
Neither Walna Scar nor White Maiden feature in Wainwright's guides and
the path between them is relatively unfrequented, being little more
than a faint trod in the rough grass of the ridge. A ten minute walk
south from Walna Scar with very similar views.
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White
Side
Location: Lake
District,
Eastern Fells
Grid Ref: NY
337166
Height: 2831 ft (863
m)
Status: Wainwright,
Hewitt,
Nuttall
Notes: One of the
many tops
of Helvellyn's long northern ridge, White Side lays just over a mile
north
of its parent and is traversed by all those choosing the old mine track
from Glenridding as a route to or from Helvellyn. As such it is a
deceptively
easy climb, particularly as it ranks as one of the twenty highest
summits
in England. The highlights of its view include nearby Helvellyn,
Swirral
Edge and Catstycam.
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Wills Neck
Location: Quantocks,
Somerset
Grid Ref: ST
165352
Height: 1261 ft (384
m)
Status: Marilyn
Notes: The highest
point of
the Quantocks, a hill range in western Someset running from Taunton
northwestwards
to the coast. The Quantocks are superb walking country, sandy heathland
with heathery tops and forested slopes. Wills Neck is best visited as
part
of a ridgewalk but could be climbed direct via a number of footpaths
from
down in the valleys to either side (e.g. from Crowcombe or Aisholt).
There
are superb views to the west and northwest, including the coast near
Minehead
and across the Bristol Channel to Wales.
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Wilmington
Hill
Location: South
Downs, Sussex
Grid Ref: TQ
548034
Height: 702 ft (214 m)
Status: Marilyn
Notes: Wilmington
Hill is
the first major summit on the South Downs west of Eastbourne. It lays
some
400m off the roue of the South Downs Way but, by careful map reading
and
the use of a permissive path, it's possible to access the trig point.
The
actual highest point appears to be a grassy mound around 50 metres
further
along the path. The summit stands on the lip of a steep north-facing
chalk
slope and the views across the Weald are superb. To the west Firle
Beacon
presents an inviting profile while to the south there is a distant view
of Newhaven harbour and the Channel.
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Winder
Location: Howgill
Fells
Grid Ref: SD
653932
Height: 1553 ft (473
m)
Status: Clement
Notes: Winder sits
immediately above Sedbergh and is likely to be the first top
encountered by anyone venturing into the Howgills from the town. There
is a topograph near the trig pillar, though unfortunately some of it is
illegible. The view, however, encompasses both the Lakeland fells and
the Pennines, with Kentmere Pike to the northwest and Whernside to the
southeast, each roughly 20 miles away. The ascent from Sedbergh takes
about 50 minutes.
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Wrekin,
The
Location: Shropshire
Hills
Grid Ref: SJ
628080
Height: 1335 ft (407
m)
Status: Marilyn
Notes: Surrounded by
woodland, myth and legend, the Wrekin is a suberb little hill sutuated
three miles southwest of Wellington, near Telford in Shropshire. The
summit is home to a TV transmitting station as well as a trig pillar
and a topograph. The view is superb; many of the principal hills of mid
and north Wales can be seen, including Pen-y-Fan and Cadair Idris,
while to the south the view extends to the Malverns and Cotswolds. To
the north and northeast lay the Cheshire plain with Winter Hill beyond,
parts of the Pennines including Blackstone Edge, and the Roaches and
Cannock Chase. To the east the hill overlooks Telford, Wolverhampton
and Birmingham. A rough track runs all the way up from a road junction
at the northeast end of the hill, and a lone cottage halfway up
provides drinks and refreshments.
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