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Cleeve
Hill
Location: The
Cotswolds, Cheltenham
Grid Ref: SO
996246
Height: 1083 ft (330
m)
Status: Marylin
Notes: It's
such a crying shame that this, the highest point of southern England's
most charming range of hills, should be such a cheerless and mundane
place. The Cotswolds are formed from a limestone escarpment and the
scarp slopes are full of interest, yet the highest point lays on the
edge of a flat pasture adjacent to a car park, a golf course and a
cluster of radio masts. It's fortunate that the immediate environs of
Cleeve Hill make up for the disappointment of its summit, being fine
walking country and commanding a view over Cheltenham and the Severn
vale. You can drive to the top but any self respecting walker will at
least stroll up from the town. |
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Clough
Head
Location: Lake
District,
Eastern Fells
Grid Ref: NY
333225
Height: 2382 ft (726
m)
Status: Wainwright,
Hewitt,
Nuttall
Notes: The
northernmost fell
of the Helvellyn massif, Clough Head enjoys a superb view along the
Keswick
- Penrith gap and across the Glenderamackin valley to Blencathra, whose
five southern ridges are displayed to full advantage (see photo, left).
Clough Head is rarely climbed on its own, but more usually ascended as
part of a ridgewalk including the Dodds.
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Codale
Head
Location: Lake
District, Central Fells
Grid Ref: NY
288090
Height: 2395 ft (730
m)
Status: Nuttall
Notes: A minor top
of High Raise laying just a few hundred metres northeast of Sergeant
Man. Despite being the geographical head of Codale it does not actually
overlook it, being some way back from the lip of the steeper gorund.
Easedale is partly in view. Apart from Sergeant Man the felltop most
prominent in the panorama is High Raise itself, half a mile to the
northwest. |
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Coety
Mountain
Location: Lwyd Vale
Grid Ref: SO
231079
Height: 1896 ft (578
m)
Status: Marylin, Dewey
Notes: Coety Mountain
is the highest point of the moorland ridge seperating Abertillery (in
the Afon Vale) from Blaenavon (in the Lwyd Vale). It is most easily
climbed from the latter but the terrain is very confusing and the paths
on the hill's lower slopes are very difficult to trace. You need to
head for the col carrying the power lines and then walk north. The
ridge path peters out some 400 metres from Coity's highest point, which
is unmarked and unmemorable. The highlight of the panorama is the view
of the Brecon Beacons to the northwest; the Bristol Channel and
Somerset can be seen to the south. |
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Conic Hill
Location: Scottish
Highlands,
Loch Lomond
Grid Ref: NS
432923
Height: 1185 ft
(361m)
Status: Marylin
Notes: Conic Hill
is a complex
little hill with three obvious summits, each of them heather-clad domes
with steep flanks. The summits lay immediately adjacent to the West
Highland
Way and the ascent is one of the walk's early highlights. The hill lays
on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond near Balmaha, from where it can
easily
be climbed in about 75 minutes. The views are glorious and include Loch
Lomond and its islands to the west, the Lanarkshire plains to the south
and Ben Lomond to the north. Conic Hill is more or less on the Highland
Boundary Fault.
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Corn Du
Location: Brecon
Beacons
Grid Ref: SO
007213
Height: 2864 ft (873
m)
Status: Nuttall
Notes: Corn Du is the
second "Brecon Beacon", the slightly lower neighbour of Pen y Fan. It
shares its big brother's flat-topped profile. If you ascend the Beacons
by the normal route from Storey Arms then Corn Du will be the first top
you reach, the precursor to Pen y Fan itself. Views are glorious; the
plateau of the Beacons sweeps away to the south, the hills of mid-Wales
appear to the north, and there are distant views of Snowdonia, the
Shropshire Hills, the southern Pennines and Exmoor on clear days.
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Craig yr Allt
Location: Taff Vale
Grid Ref: ST
133850
Height: 896 ft (273
m)
Status: Marilyn
Notes: A splendid
little hill standing two miles northeast of Taffs Well, and just under
an hour's walk from the village's railway station. The Rhymney Valley
Walk runs along the ridge. The highest point is unmarked but is
nevertheless unmistakable, and lays a few paces east of a little rock
outcrop. Apart from Taffs Well itself the view encompasses Treforest
and Pontypridd to the northwest and Caerphilly to the northeast, as
well as the surrounding
countryside of hills
and woods.
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Craigendarroch
Location: Scottish
Highlands,
Cairngorms
Grid Ref: NO
365965
Height: 1319 ft (402
m)
Status: Marilyn
Notes:
A little gem of a hill, a wooded crag standing immediately above the
town of Ballater in Deesside. There is a network of paths through the
woods, one of which leads to the summit, where you'll find a bench and
a topograph and a glorious view. The ascent takes about 45 minutes, 15
minutes of which is spent negotiating suburban roads. The climb through
the woods is a delight and the view that rewards you includes stretches
of the Dee to the east and west, Lochnagar and its cliffs to the
southwest, Beinn a Bhuiridh and Geallaig to the west, Morven to the
north, Mount Keen poking above the hills to the southeast and Driesh
appearing through the dip of Glen Muick. Craigendarroch is an ideal
evening stroll.
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Craiggowrie
Location: Scottish
Highlands,
Cairngorms
Grid Ref: NH
962134
Height: 2253 ft (687
m)
Status: Graham Top
Notes: Craiggowrie is
the westernmost of the four tops of the Meall a'Buachaille ridge that
lies to the north of Loch Morlich, and as such is the nearest of the
four to Aviemore, which it overlooks. The route to the summit from
Glenmore runs through forest for a couple of miles before emerging onto
a featureless, heathery hillside and running straight up a ridge to the
hill's short western shoulder. Normally one would come down this way,
having reached Craiggowrie at the end of the ridgewalk. The Spey
valley, the Rothiemurchus and Abernethy forests and the corries and
tops of Cairn Gorm are the principal features of the view.
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Creag
a'Chaillich
Location: Scottish
Highlands,
Cairngorms
Grid Ref: NH
968127
Height: 2332 ft (711
m)
Status: Graham Top
Notes: One of the
tops of the Meall a'Buachaille ridge north of Loch Morlich, and the
third one along if the ridge is walked from east to west. There are
paths from both neighbouring summits but none from down in the valley.
The view is pretty much the same as that from neighbouring Creagan Gorm
(see below).
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Creag
a Mhaim
Location: Scottish
Highlands,
Kintail
Grid Ref: NH
087077
Height: 3107 ft (947
m)
Status: Munro, Murdo
Notes:The
easternmost of the
seven Munros of the celebrated South Glenshiel ridge, Creag a Mhaim has
splendid views to the east, enlivened by both Loch Cluanie and Loch
Loyne
(assuming you don't suffer hill fog, like I did on the day the summit
picture
was taken). The top picture shows the mountain seen from Carn Ghluasaid
across Loch Cluanie. Creag a Mhaim is often recommended as an ideal
first
Munro, given its relative ease of ascent by a fine stalker's path up
its
southeast ridge, reached in turn by an estate track from the Cluanie
Inn.
From Creag a Mhaim a good ridge, with very few difficulties, stretches
some miles to the west and incudes six more Munros.
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Creag
an Dubh-loch
Location: Scottish
Highlands,
Mounth
Grid Ref: NO
233822
Height: 3225 ft (983
m)
Status: Munro top,
Murdo
Notes: Part of the
Lochnagar massif, Creag an Dubh-loch lays to the southwest of the
Dubh-Loch and is the top of a mighty buttress of cliffs on that side.
The cliffs are not seen from the plateau, however, from which the
summit is a mere ten minute stroll off the path between Broad Cairn and
Cairn Bannoch. There is no path but the route is obvious and lays over
easy terrain. The Dubh-Loch is not seen from the summit but the whole
of the Lochnagar plateau is seen to advantage and Loch Muick looks
quite spectacular to the east.
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Creag
Leacach
Location: Scottish
Highlands,
Mounth
Grid Ref: NO
154745
Height: 3238 ft (987
m)
Status: Munro, Murdo
Notes: Creag
Leacach is Glas
Maol's immediate neighbour to the south and can easily be climbed from
it; there's only about 200 ft of reascent. The summit itself is
surprisingly
rocky and, unusually for a Scottish mountain, carries a drystone wall
along
its crest. There are good views to the south down to Spittal of
Glenshee
and beyond, but the great bulk of Glas Maol cuts out much of the
panorama
to the north and northeast.
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Creagan
Gorm
Location: Scottish
Highlands,
Cairngorms
Grid Ref: NH
978120
Height: 2401ft (732
m)
Status: Graham Top
Notes: Creagan Gorm
is one of the tops of the Meall a'Buachaille ridge north of Glenmore,
the second of the four if you traverse the ridge in the usual direction
from east to west. The ridge path is well maintained as far as the col
between Buachaiile and Gorm, after which it gets a good deal rougher.
There is also a path up to this col direct from Glenmore. The view is
similar to that of its neighbour, consisting of the ridges and corries
of nearby Cairn Gorm, the Rothiemurchus and Abernethy forests, and
various distant high summits.
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Cribyn
Location: Brecon
Beacons
Grid Ref: SO
023213
Height: 2608 ft (795
m)
Status: Hewitt,
Nuttall
Notes: A summit in
the Brecon Beacons, situated just under a mile east of Pen y Fan,
Cribyn is probably best climbed as part of a Beacons ridgewalk. The
nearest public road is at SO 038237, from where a prominent track runs
up to the pass between Cribyn and Fan y Big (the next summit along the
ridge). The highlight of the panorama is of course Pen y Fan itself,
but the view also takes in the Black Mountains, the Bristol Channel,
the vale of Brecon and Mynydd Epynt.
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Cross
Fell
Location: North
Pennines,
Cumbria
Grid Ref: NY
687343
Height: 2930 ft (890
m)
Status: Hewitt,
Nuttall, Marilyn
Notes: Just
seventy feet short
of Munro height, Cross Fell is the highest summit of the Pennines (and
therefore the highest point on the main watershed of England). Formely
known as Fiends Fell, the hill is a massive moorland lump with a broad,
rocky summit plateau. A well built wind shelter adorns the summit, and
the view encompasses much of the north Pennines as well as the Lakeland
fells. On clear days both the east and west coasts are visible.
The
fell is best ascended by the "corpse road" up from Garrigill in the
upper
South Tyne valley, a distance of seven miles. This track forms part of
the Pennine Way, as does Cross Fell itself.
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Crowborough
Beacon
Location: East
Sussex
Grid Ref: TQ
510305
Height: 794 ft (242 m)
Status: Marilyn
Notes: Crowborough
Beacon
(simply given as "Crowborough" by most sources) has the distinction of
being Britain's only urban Marilyn. Unfortunately that's really its
only
interesting feature. The highest point of an area known as Ashdown
Forest,
it lays somewhere along Beacon Road, pictured here. There is a trig
point
on a covered reservoir, just by the communications mast, but as an
artificial
earthwork that doesn't realy count. Look for the house named "Beacon
Crest"
just here on the left, which is arguably the highest natural point. A
pleasant
enough saunter of about 40 minutes from Crowborough railway station.
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Cuidhe
Crom
Location: Scottish
Highlands,
Mounth
Grid Ref: NO
259849
Height: 3553 ft (1083
m)
Status: Munro top,
Murdo
Notes: A top of
Lochnagar, laying roughly 2km southeast of the main summit. Once you've
hauled yourself up to Lochnagar's summit plateau via the shoulder known
as the Ladder (part of the popular route from Spittal of Glenmuick),
you're very close to Cuidhe Crom itself. The walk to the summit tor
from here is simple - about ten minutes' diversion over short turf with
virtually level gradients. An easy one for list-tickers to collect. The
name apparently trasnaltes as "crooked wreath" and probably refers to a
crescent shaped snow cornice (there is a better-known Cuidhe Crom on
the headwall of Coire Cas on Cairn Gorm). |
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Dale Head
Location: Lake
District,
North Western Fells
Grid Ref: NY
223153
Height: 2470 ft (753
m)
Status: Wainwright,
Marilyn,
Hewitt, Nuttall
Notes: Said to be
the Lakeland
fell with the highest reward to effort ratio, Dale Head can be climbed
from Honister Hause in around forty five minutes. It forms the apex of
two ranges, the ridge to the west rising to Hindscarth and then again
to
Robinson, while that to the north encompasses High Spy, Maiden Moor and
Catbells. Dale Head forms a continuous wall above the Honsiter and
upper
Borrowdale road. It looks across to the Gable and Scafell massifs to
the
south, and is also on intimate terms with the High Stile and Grasmoor
ranges.
Dale Head Tarn, down at the col between the fell and its neighbour High
Spy, is a favourite picnic spot and wild camp site. The top picture
portrays Dale Head as seen from High Spy. |
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Detling
Hill
Location: North
Downs, Kent
Grid Ref: TQ
804586
Height: 656 ft (200 m)
Status: Marilyn
Notes: One of the
four Marylins
of the North Downs, and typically disappointing. The scenic interest
lies
in the nearby slopes facing Maidstone, which is a couple of miles to
the southwest. The
top itself is indeterminate, laying somewhere within a couple of
hundred
square metres of flat land sandwiched between a six lane motorway and a
mobile phone mast. The nearby trig point at 198 metres is obviously not
the summit - rather, walk to the northwest to enter the topmost
pasture,
newly planted with trees, and go up to the west boundary fence near the
chalet. Good view of Maidstone, Leeds Castle and the Len valley from
the
trig point. The top is barely a mile and a half from Bearsted railway
station.
Drivers can cheat by parking on the adjacent lane up from Thurstone.
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