Black Hill, in the

Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It includes the Dark Peak, where moorla ...

, is the highest hill in

West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and Humber Region of England. It is an inland and upland county having eastward-draining valleys while taking in the moors of the Pennines. West Yorkshire came into exi ...

, England. Its summit has a maximum elevation of above sea level. It is surpassed in height by only two other major summits in the Peak District (

Kinder Scout Kinder Scout is a moorland plateau and national nature reserve in the Dark Peak of the Derbyshire Peak District in England. Part of the moor, at above sea level, is the highest point in the Peak District, in Derbyshire and the East Midlands; ...

and

Bleaklow Bleaklow is a high, largely peat-covered, gritstone moorland in the Derbyshire High Peak near the town of Glossop. It is north of Kinder Scout, across the Snake Pass ( A57), and south of the A628 Woodhead Pass. Much of it is nearly 2, ...

). Black Hill is a typical Pennine moorland mountain, with a very flat and extensive plateau (but steeper sides). The top is

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficient ...

y, poorly drained, and thus very boggy after rain. The area surrounding the summit itself had virtually no vegetation and was very dark, giving the hill an appropriate name. However, recent restoration work has eliminated much of the exposed peat. Black Hill is crossed by the

Pennine Way The Pennine Way is a National Trail in England, with a small section in Scotland. The trail stretches for from Edale, in the northern Derbyshire Peak District, north through the Yorkshire Dales and Northumberland National Park and ends at Kir ...

whose now-paved surface allows walkers to reach the top dry-shod even in the wettest of weather. Black Hill was the highest point (county top) of the historic county of Cheshire, lying at the tip of what was once known as the Cheshire Panhandle, a long projection of the county which lay to the north of the reservoir filled valley of Longdendale. Under the local government

reforms Reform ( lat, reformo) means the improvement or amendment of what is wrong, corrupt, unsatisfactory, etc. The use of the word in this way emerges in the late 18th century and is believed to originate from Christopher Wyvill's Association movement ...

which were enacted in 1974, Black Hill was placed for administrative purposes on the border between the boroughs of

Kirklees Kirklees is a local government district of West Yorkshire, England, governed by Kirklees Council with the status of a metropolitan borough. The largest town and administrative centre of Kirklees is Huddersfield, and the district also includes ...

in West Yorkshire and High Peak in

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

Routes

The Hill can be visited by a number of routes, including along the Pennine Way from Crowden via the Laddow Rocks cliffs; bogs permitting, a return can be made over Westend Moss (the pre-1966 route of the Pennine Way) to create a circular walk. Another popular approach is from the junction of the A635 and the Wessenden Head Road (to

Meltham Meltham is a town and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, in West Yorkshire, England. It lies in the Holme Valley, below Wessenden Moor, four and a half miles south-west of Huddersfield on the edge of the Peak District Na ...

), known locally as the 'Isle of Skye' (after a former hotel). This provides access to a paved section of the Pennine Way southwards to Black Hill. Black Hill can also be reached easily from

Holme Moss Holme Moss ( a.s.l.) is high moorland on the border between the Holme Valley district of Kirklees in West Yorkshire and the High Peak district of Derbyshire in England. Historically on the boundary between the West Riding of Yorkshire and Che ...

via access land, but this route requires the use of map and compass, as although the ground is level, it becomes trackless and confusing in places. South of Crowden, the Pennine Way next visits Bleaklow and Kinder Scout (both of which are slightly higher, just over , and so are Hewitts). The triangulation column ("

trig point A triangulation station, also known as a trigonometrical point, and sometimes informally as a trig, is a fixed surveying station, used in geodetic surveying and other surveying projects in its vicinity. The nomenclature varies regionally: they a ...

") and highest point on Black Hill (and the highest point in West Yorkshire) is on a small elevated mound, called Soldiers' Lump. According to WainwrightWainwright, A. ''Pennine Way Companion'' p.157 the support timbers for the

Ramsden theodolite The Ramsden surveying instruments are those constructed by Jesse Ramsden and used in high precision geodetic surveys carried out in the period 1784 to 1853. This includes the five great theodolites—great in name, great in size and great in accu ...

, used by the Royal Engineers in the original

Ordnance Survey Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of 1745. There was a ...

which began in 1784, were still to be found here many years later.

References

{{Peaks of the Peak District Marilyns of England Geography of Kirklees Mountains and hills of Derbyshire Mountains and hills of the Peak District Hills of West Yorkshire Hills of Cheshire Highest points of English counties

Routes

See also

References