18.03.25 & 10.04.25 Mow Cop (SJ 858 575) and Old Man of Mow (SJ 858 575)
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| The Old Man of Mow (SJ 858 575) and the trig point atop Mow Cop (SJ 858 575) |
A day out with Mark with
an intriguing investigation and a survey planned. The first part of the day was spent in
southern Manchester gathering information on a project that was debated when at
John Kirk’s house last October. Happy
with our initial investigation the SatNav extricated us out of the confines of
Manchester toward the quieter countryside and open fields of Cheshire as we
headed toward its border with Staffordshire.
It was here where a pillar of rock and a trig point awaited. However, before visiting Mow Cop we spent an
hour in a pub with a late lunch and good conversation.
Mow Cop is one of those
oddities in British hill listing as it has two distinct high points. One is beside a trig point on a part of the
hill that remains intact after extensive quarrying activities; this is listed
as a Submarilyn by Alan Dawson. Whilst
the other is an impressive rock pillar, left in situ after those self-same
quarrying activities, this is higher than the ground beside the trig point and
is listed by Mark Jackson as the summit in the Humps. The trig summit is easily attained, whilst the
rock pillar requires competent climbing skill to slither up to its high point.
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| The sign at the start of the walk |
I’d read reports of this
area but had not until today visited. Thankfully
the weather proved beautiful with unadulterated blue sky, albeit with a chilled
east breeze whisking across the upper hill.
Mark had visited the trig summit before, and as he is bagging English
Humps he was enthusiastic to see if any higher ground beside the castle and a
private house was higher than the rock pillar.
Otherwise his English Hump completion may have to wait with one hill
forever lingering out of his grasp.
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| The castle from the edge of the car park |
A car park close to the
castle gives easy access to the various points we hoped to visit with good
paths from one to another. A path and steps
led up to the castle which according to the information board was erected as a
folly. As with most follies it is a
shell, but still impressive as it perches atop a rock outcrop, the high point
of which looked as it was just the other side of the stepped section. From here the top of the rock pillar could be
seen and we soon dismissed the rock beside the castle as an overall high point.
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| Another view of the castle |
A path led down from the
castle before swinging around to continue up toward the confines of the rock pillar. A number of people were out enjoying the
sunshine and extensive view. The latter
surprised me, but being on the edge of the Peak afforded a view westward across
the Cheshire plain toward the sandstone escarpment of Raw Head.
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| The Old Man of Mow |
I hadn’t realised that
access to the base of the rock pillar was so easy, imagining it to be situated
in the depths of a quarry and difficult to get to from ground beside the trig point. As we rounded a corner on the narrow path
that led from an access track to a private house, there it was; an upthrust of
rock towering above. Being beside the rock
pillar also gave opportunity to survey the connecting col between it and the
trig summit. I attempted this on three
occasions, each time the Trimble struggled to get anywhere close to the 0.1m
accuracy level before data should be logged.
However, the proximity of the rock pillar which cut off 180° of the immediate surrounds and the fact that the other half was also
restricted due to the col being in the bowl of the quarry meant that the
required accuracy level was not attained, therefore I closed the equipment down
and headed up to join Mark beside the trig point.
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| Attempting to gather data at the connecting col |
We quickly assessed the area of land beside the trig and decided that
a rock about 3-4 metres from its base was the high point. After the Trimble was positioned with its
internal antenna aligned to the high point of rock I headed back to the trig point
and aligned its top so I looked across to what was now its flat and horizontal
length toward the top of the rock pillar.
The pillar was just a little higher than the top of the trig. This was done relatively quickly and would
need an optical device to be certain.
However, it is a good indicator that the rock pillar is higher than the
ground beside the trig.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Mow Cop |
Mark headed down to wait beside the rock pillar as the Trimble
gathered data. After the customary five
minutes of data were gathered and stored I closed the equipment down, took a
few photographs, and packed it away and joined Mark down in the confines of the
quarried bowl. We then followed our
inward path out toward the private houses that dot the land hereabouts; one has
land beside and above it that interested Mark as another potential point to
rival the height of the rock pillar.
However, it was on what looked like private land and a quick visual
inspection dismissed it as a candidate.
All that remained was to follow the tracks and paths back to the car. It all proved an excellent day out with the
temptation of homemade pizza waiting for the hungry walkers as they arrived
back at Trengove Towers.
Postscript:
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| The summit of Mow Cop with the castle in the background on the left |
Prior to visiting Mow Cop I had not realised how easy it was to access
the trig summit from the base of the rock pillar. I also did not realise how easy it was to
sight from the trig point toward the pillar of rock and hence ascertain a
measurement offset for its height in relation to the top of the trig point. It was good to be able to gather data at the
high point of land beside the trig, but a second visit would give opportunity
to also ascertain an accurate height for the rock pillar.
Therefore, with the weather continuing set fine I was out relatively
early scraping frost from the windows of my car before heading east to the
delights of Mow Cop. I’d come prepared
with all necessary equipment to get a measurement onset for the rock
pillar. This consisted of my old wooden
measuring staff, something that I rarely use nowadays, but it still does the
business and especially so over the relatively short distance between the top
of the trig point and the top of the rock pillar. I knew from my previous visit that the rock
pillar is a little higher than the top of the trig point as I’d aligned one
with the other and with my measuring staff sighting to a maximum 5ft (1.52m) height
I hoped this would be sufficient.
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| Mow Cop Castle |
The rather attractive houses of Mow Cop were relatively quiet when I drove
through the small community and wound my way uphill to the National Park car
park at the base of the castle. I soon
had my walking boots on and set off up the path to the castle to investigate
the highest natural rock beside its base.
Steps lead up toward the locked interior of the castle with metal railings
either side. On my previous visit I
thought rock on the right hand side of the steps to be the highest natural
point beside the castle. However, on
closer inspection there is also rock on the left hand side that looked slightly
higher.
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| Looking out toward the rock pillar and the trig point from beside the castle |
I followed the path Mark and I had taken three weeks ago that wound
down steeply before continuing toward the narrow lanes and the path through the
small section of moor toward the base of the rock pillar. It felt good to be back with the opportunity
to gather more data.
It’s only a short ascent from the base of the rock pillar to the trig
point and again I looked at the various embedded rocks around its base and
confirmed that the one Mark and I had chosen for Trimble placement was the
highest. However, I wanted to gather
data from the top of the trig before gathering more data from this point.
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| The equipment needed to take a height reading for the Old Man of Mow |
Before setting the Trimble up to gather data I assembled the measuring
staff and sighted with the aid of a fixed spirit level toward the top of the
rock pillar, using a post level for vertical alignment. As the trig point is placed on a plinth I
placed the bottom of the staff at the side of the trig on top of the
plinth. I sighted using an initial 5ft
reading, this proved above the top of the rock pillar, therefore I altered the
spirit level height to 4ft 6˝ and again sighted toward the top of the rock
pillar. This proved much closer with the
spirit level just skimming a couple of inches below its top. Therefore the rock pillar was approximately
4ft 8˝ higher than the base of the trig point on top of the plinth. Placing an 18˝ ruler flat on the top of the
trig point I then marked with chalk where this intersected with the measuring
staff. By doing so this gave the height
different between the top of the trig and the spirit level position fixed on
the staff. The spirit level was 19.0cm
(0.19m) above the top of the trig point; add a couple of inches for the height
difference already sighted and this gave a measurement offset of 24cm (0.24m). Therefore, gathering Trimble data from the
top of the trig point and adding 0.24m to the result would give a fairly
accurate height for the top of the rock pillar.
During this process there wasn’t a breath of breeze, which obviously
helped with sighting from one place to the other.
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| Almost ready to take a height reading at the top of the trig point to ascertain with a 0.24m offset the height for the Old Man of Mow |
Happy with my endeavours I now sighted toward the ground at the base
of the castle and the high ground above a private house that Mark and I
investigated on our previous visit. Both
proved lower and therefore were dismissed as potential high points.
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| The top of the Old Man of Mow |
I now packed the various bits of equipment away and set the Trimble on
top of the trig point to gather data.
During data collection I stood a safe distance away from the trig so as
not to interfere with satellite reception.
I watched as one or two people sauntered close to the rock pillar on the
earthen track that contours the base of the moor. It was proving pleasantly warm in the early
morning sunshine, but I still had a number of data sets I wanted to gather, so
I did not linger. The next two were from
the same position; on top of the trig point.
This would give three data sets to compare and take an average of their
heights.
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| Gathering data at the top of the trig point |
Once this was done I re-positioned the Trimble with its internal
antenna aligned with the highest natural and embedded rock about three metres
from the base of the trig point and proceeded to gather a further two data
sets. These would give comparison with
the data set collected three weeks ago with Mark and again it would now give
three data sets that could be compared and averaged for their height.
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| Gathering data at the summit of Mow Cop |
I would have been more than happy for this to be the end of my surveying
activities. However, when visiting with
Mark I tried to gather data from the connecting col between the rock pillar and
the trig point summit. I failed on three
occasions, probably due to the rock pillar being immediately above the Trimble
and the equipment obviously did not enjoy its surrounds.
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| The Old Man of Mow from Mow Cop |
Since my initial visit I used LIDAR to ascertain a height and position
of this col, with 1m DSM LIDAR giving two positions of equal height,
approximately two metres apart. Being
here also gave opportunity to try to gather data from this connecting col
again. I decided to position the Trimble
a couple of metres away from the immediate base of the rock pillar, hoping that
this new position would compare favourably with the LIDAR position, it would at
least give the Trimble a greater chance of achieving the 0.1m accuracy level
before data should be logged.
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| Gathering data at the connecting col between Mow Cop and the Old Man of Mow |
It took around 15 minutes for the accuracy level to be attained and
once the 0.1m mark appeared on the screen I pressed ‘Log’ and scampered off to
wait for five minutes of data to be gathered and stored. This proved a bonus survey as I had little
expectation that I could gather data from this point. Once a few photos were taken I packed the equipment
away and sauntered back to my car. The
re-visit had proven a worthwhile exercise and I was back home for 1.30pm and
relaxing in my back garden by 2.00pm. It
proved an excellent way to spend a morning!
Survey Result:
Mow Cop
Summit Height: 335.2m (converted to OSGM15, average of three
Trimble GeoXH 6000 surveys)
Summit Grid Reference: SJ 85841 57544
Col Height: 323.7m (converted to OSGM15)
Col Grid Reference: SJ 85828 57559
Drop: 11.5m
Dominance: 3.42%
Old Man of Mow
Summit Height: 336.5m (converted to OSGM15, average of three
Trimble GeoXH 6000 surveys)
Summit Grid Reference: SJ 85825 57560 (LIDAR)
Col Height: 193.0m (LIDAR)
Col Grid Reference: SJ 87858 56821 (LIDAR)
Drop: 143.5m (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR
col)
Dominance: 42.65% (Trimble GeoXH 6000 summit and LIDAR
col)
For further details please consult the Trimble Survey Spreadsheet
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