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

Dryhope Hill (NT 928 116) – 400m Sub-Four reclassified to Four

There has been a reclassification to the listing of the The Fours – The 400m Hills of England, with the summit height, col height and their locations, the drop and status of the hill derived by Joe Nuttall who produced a summit analysis programme using LIDAR, and then by LIDAR analysis initially conducted by Jim Bloomer and subsequently by Myrddyn Phillips. 

LIDAR image of Dryhope Hill (NT 928 116)

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

The Fours – The 400m Hills of England.  English hills at or above 400m and below 500m in height that have 30m minimum drop, accompanying the main listing of The Fours are three categories of sub hills, with this hill being reclassified from the 400m Sub-Four category, 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.

The Fours - The 400m Hills of England by Myrddyn Phillips and Aled Williams

The name the hill is listed by is Dryhope Hill, and it is adjoined to the The Cheviot group of hills, which are situated in Northumberland (Region 33: Scottish Border to the River Tyne), and it is positioned with the A68 road to its south-west and the A697 road to its east, and has the town of Rothbury towards the south-east.

When the 2^nd edition of the The Fours – The 400m Hills of England was published by Mapping Mountains Publications in April 2018, this hill was included as a 400m Sub-Four and listed with 29m of drop, based on the 486m summit spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:50,000 Landranger and 1:25,000 Explorer map, and the 457m col spot height that appeared on the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map. 

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

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 reclassification of this hill from 400m Sub-Four status is due to LIDAR analysis, resulting in a 486.4m summit height and a 456.2m col height, with these values giving this hill 30.2m of drop, which is sufficient for it to be classified as a Four.

 

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  The Cheviot

Name:  Dryhope Hill

OS 1:50,000 map:  80

Summit Height:  486.4m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  NT 92877 11671 (LIDAR)

Col Height:  456.2m (LIDAR)

Col Grid Reference:  NT 93181 11858 (LIDAR)

Drop:  30.2m (LIDAR)

 

Our thanks to Ronnie Bowron for bringing the details of this hill to our attention.

For the additions, deletions and reclassifications to The Fours – The 400m Hills of England 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 (August 2022)