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

Burbage Edge (SK 029 732) – 400m Sub-Four deletion

There has been a deletion 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 from LIDAR analysis conducted by Myrddyn Phillips. 

LIDAR image of Burbage Edge (SK 029 732)

The criteria for the list that this deletion 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 being deleted 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 Burbage Edge and it is adjoined to the Axe Edge group of hills, which are situated in the Peak District, and it is positioned with a minor road to its east north-east, the A5004 road to its north-east, the A537 road to its south-west and the A54 road to its south-east, and has the town of Buxton towards the 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 listed as a 400m Sub-Four with an estimated c 21m of drop, based on a 499m summit height and the 479m col spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey 1:25,000 Explorer map, with an accompanying note stating:

Triangulation pillar with 500.097m flush bracket height situated on the summit area.  However, as the ground at the base of the trig will be at an elevation of approximately 499.8m, this hill is listed as a Sub-Four until a sufficiently accurate survey can confirm the height of the hill.  The summit height is presented in the list as 499m to avoid any confusion that may arise with a rounded 500m height appearing in a list of Sub-Fours.

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 LIDAR analysis, resulting in a 500.2m summit height and a 477.5m col height, with these values giving this hill 22.7m of drop, which as its height exceeds 500m is insufficient for it to be classified as a 400m Sub-Four.

 

The full details for the hill are:

Group:  Axe Edge

Name:  Burbage Edge

OS 1:50,000 map:  119

Summit Height:  500.2m (LIDAR)

Summit Grid Reference:  SK 02961 73235 (LIDAR)

Col Height:  477.5m (LIDAR)

Col Grid Reference:  SK 02748 72017 (LIDAR)

Drop:  22.7m (LIDAR)

 

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 (October 2023)