Mapping Mountains – Hill Reclassifications – The 500-Metre Tops of England and Wales – Deweys

Kirkby Fell (SD 873 635) – Dewey addition

This is one in a series of retrospective Hill Reclassification posts that detail hills whose status has altered in the listing of the Deweys and where I have had direct association with the status change.  These posts will tie in with a forthcoming Change Register giving detail to this list and its alterations since publication in the Mountain tables book.

LIDAR image of Kirkby Fell (SD 873 635)

The 500-Metre Tops of England and Wales are affectionately known after their hill list compiler; Michael Dewey.  This list mixes metric and imperial height in its criteria to bookend up to the 2000ft height band and takes in all hills in England, Isle of Man and Wales that are 500m and above and below 2000ft (609.6m) in height that have 30m minimum drop.

This list formed one of a number of lists that appeared in the Mountain tables book published by Constable in 1995 and at the time of publication comprised 373 hills with 164 in England, 5 in the Isle of Man and 204 in Wales.  The Deweys have undergone extensive revision since first publication with the initial stages forming the basis of this revision given below:

1995    Mountain tables published by Constable with 373 hills listed as Deweys.

April 2000    Strider (LDWA quarterly booklet) publishes contact details for David Purchase and Myrddyn Phillips who have found and list 24 and 14 possible new 500m tops respectively.

It was expanded versions of the above two lists that formed the basis of the next publication:

25^th May 2000    List of Possible 500 Metre Tops by Michael Dewey listing 44 hills.

David Purchase expands his Additional Dewey 500m Hills and Myrddyn Phillips produces lists of English 500m hills to measure and Welsh 500m hills to measure.

These lists formed the basis of the next publication:

29^th June 2000    Possible/Probable 500’s by Michael Dewey listing 77 hills.  Michael adopts following protocol; if one person proposes that a top should qualify as a 500 by personal survey, and is then confirmed by a second person, it should then be promoted to the main list.

April 2002    The 500+ Tops of England and Wales – The ‘New Deweys’ published in the Strider booklet and listing 66 new qualifying hills.

25^th May 2006    Rob Woodall republishes Michael’s main and possible/probable lists on the RHB Yahoo group file database. 

 

Mountain tables by Michael Dewey

The details for this addition appear below:

The name the hill is listed by in the Deweys is Kirkby Fell, and it is adjoined to the Ingleborough group of hills which are situated in the Yorkshire Dales in England, and it is encircled by minor roads with the A65 further afield to its west, and has the town of Settle towards the west.

This hill was not included in the original 1995 Constable publication, but with a 546m summit spot height and col contouring between 510m – 520m that appear on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map, the interpolated drop value was estimated sufficient for this hill to be a potential new Dewey.  The above detail was noted by Myrddyn Phillips, but the hill at this stage was not elevated to the ranks of Deweys.

Extract from the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map

As the interpolated drop value of this hill was close to the minimum qualifying mark of 30m it was prioritised for a GNSS survey, and this took place on the 10^th April 2011.  The summit and col of this hill were surveyed by John Barnard, Graham Jackson and Myrddyn Phillips using a Leica 530, with assistance from Brent Lynam and Mark Trengove, resulting in a 546.45m summit height and a 515.3m col height, with these values giving this hill 31.15m of drop, and once the list author; Michael Dewey, was informed it was added to his list.

The summit of Kirkby Fell

With the advent of LIDAR the details for this hill have been re-assessed.  The LIDAR (Light Detection & Ranging) technique produced highly accurate height data that is now freely available for much of England and Wales.

LIDAR col image for Kirkby Fell

The summit and col height for this hill were subsequently ascertained from LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips, resulting in a 546.35m summit height and a 515.4m col height, with the latter positioned at SD 87193 63756, which is 54 metres from where the col position was documented during the Leica 530 survey.  However, the LIDAR result does not change this hill’s Dewey status as the drop value comes to 30.9m.

 

The full details for the hill are:

Name:  Kirkby Fell

OS 1:50,000 map:  98

OS 1:25,000 map:  2, 41

Summit Height:  546.45m (converted to OSGM15, Leica 530)

Summit Grid Reference:  SD 87381 63531 (hand-held GPS during survey)

Col Height:  515.3m (converted to OSGM15, Leica 530)

Col Grid Reference:  SN 97191 63810 (Leica 530)

Drop:  31.15m (Leica 530)

Myrddyn Phillips (September 2020)