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

Cold Stones (SE 125 636) – 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 prompted by Joe Nuttall who produced a summit analysis programme using LIDAR, and then confirmed by LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips. 

LIDAR image of Cold Stones (SE 125 636)

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 list are three categories of sub hills, with this hill 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 Cold Stones, and it is adjoined to the Whernside group of hills, which are situated in the Yorkshire Dales, and it is positioned with the B6265 road to its north and a minor road to its west, and has the town of Pateley Bridge towards the east north-east.

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

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 an estimated c 26m of drop, based on an estimated c 417m summit height and a 391m col height, the latter based on the spot height that appeared on the Ordnance Survey Vector Map Local hosted on the Geograph website and which was entitled the Interactive Coverage Map, with an accompanying note stating; The one that got away, or more appropriately, the one that was quarried away, as Cold Stones was once an English 400m P30, with an imperial height of 1,403ft (427.6m) recorded for the summit on the OS 1:10,560 map, with the OS enlarged Geograph map giving a height of 391m for the extant col, thereby confirming that the hill used to have 37m of drop.  The summit has been quarried leaving the highpoint of the hill at c 417m (SE 120 641) on the western rim of the former summit dome, thereby reducing the drop to c 26m and relegating the hill to Sub-Four status. 

Extract from the DataMapWales showing the hill with contours

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 421.2m summit height and a 390.8m col height, with these values giving this hill 30.4m of drop, which is sufficient for it to be classified as a Four.

 

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Whernside

Name:  Cold Stones

OS 1:50,000 map:  99

Summit Height:  421.2m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SE 12584 63663 (LIDAR)

Col Height:  390.8m (LIDAR)

Col Grid Reference:  SE 11773 63538 (LIDAR)

Drop:  30.4m (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 (November 2022)