Mapping Mountains – Hill Reclassifications – The Fours - The 400m Hills of England

Haystack (NY 300 013) – 400m Sub-Four deletion

There has been a deletion to the listing of The Fours - The 400m Hills of England due to analysis of data on the OS Maps website, which is the recent replacement for OS Get-a-map and confirmed by subsequent LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips.  

LIDAR image of Haystack (NY 300 013)

The criteria for the list that this deletion applies to are:

The Fours - The 400m Hills of England takes in all English hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 30m minimum drop.  Accompanying the main list are three categories of sub hills, with this hill being deleted from the 400m Sub-Fours; the criteria for which are all English hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 20m or more and below 30m of drop.  The list is co-authored by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams and the 2^nd edition of the booklet containing this list was published by Mapping Mountains Publications on the 24^th April 2018.

Prior to analysis of data on the OS Maps website this hill was listed with an estimated c 20m of drop based on the 423m summit spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey Interactive Coverage Map hosted on the Geograph website and an estimated c 403m col height, based on interpolation of 10m contouring between 400m – 410m that appear on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer maps and col contouring at 15m intervals and between 390m – 405m on the Harvey map.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey Interactive Coverage Map hosted on the Geograph website

The name the hill is listed by is Haystack and it is situated in the Southern Fells of the Lake District and is placed in Region 34, Section 34D with its Cardinal Hill being The Old Man of Coniston (SD 272 978).  The hill is positioned above the Greenburn Beck which is to its north-west and the Yewdale Beck which is to its south south-east and has the small community of Little Langdale towards its north-east.

As the summit of the hill is a part of designated open access land it can be approached from a number of directions with public footpaths leading toward it from stream valleys to the north-west and south south-east.

The deletion of Haystack from 400m Sub-Four status is due to the analysis of data on the OS Maps website.  This mapping gives contour intervals at 5m which has enabled the height of the col to be narrowed down when compared to the 10m contour intervals given on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map.  Therefore, with a 423m summit spot height on the Ordnance Survey Interactive Coverage Map hosted on the Geograph website and an estimated c 404m col height, based on interpolation of contouring on OS Maps between 400m – 405m, the listed drop of this hill was altered to an estimated c 19m of drop.

Extract from the OS Maps website

However, it was not until LIDAR became available that the details for this hill could be accurately re-assessed.  The LIDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) technique produced highly accurate height data that is now freely available for much of England and Wales. 

Therefore, the deletion of this hill from 400m Sub-Four status is due to analysis of data on the OS Maps website, which is the recent replacement for OS Get-a-map and confirmed by subsequent LIDAR analysis, resulting in a 422.7m summit height and a 403.7m col height, with these values giving this hill 19.0m of drop, which is insufficient for it to be classified as a 400m Sub-Four.

The full details for the hill are:

Cardinal Hill:  The Old Man of Coniston

Name:  Haystack

OS 1:50,000 map:  90

Summit Height:  422.7m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  NY 30062 01391 (LIDAR)

Col Height:  403.7m (LIDAR)

Col Grid Reference:  NY 30009 01460 (LIDAR)

Drop:  19.0m (LIDAR)

For the additions, deletions and reclassifications to The Fours reported on Mapping Mountains since the December 2013 publication of the 1^st edition of this list by Europeaklist please consult the following Change Registers:

The Fours

The Fours – 400m Sub-Four

The Fours – 390m Sub-Four

The Fours – 390m Double Sub-Four

Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams (July 2018)