Betsom's Hill
One classification here — Current County/UA Top — belongs to a list OpenFell holds only part of, so it has no list page. See how far the coverage goes.
- Height
- 251 m · 823 ft
- Prominence
- 15 m
- Grid reference
- TQ 43556 56386
- Coordinates
- 51.28846, 0.05731
- County / area
- Kent
- Region
- South East England
- OS Landranger
- 187
- OS Explorer
- 147
- Summit feature
- no feature: ground by lane
- Key col
- TQ411559 (236 m)
About Betsom's Hill
Betsom's Hill occupies the western edge of Kent, between Westerham and Tatsfield, close to where the A233 climbs over the Downs on its way to Biggin Hill. It marks the Kent county top at 251 metres.
This is the highest section of the North Downs as a whole, though the very highest point is Botley Hill, a short distance west. The hill sits at the western end of the Kent Downs, designated an area of outstanding natural beauty.
Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Betsom's Hill (CC BY-SA 4.0). Heights, prominence and grid references come from the Database of British & Irish Hills, not from Wikipedia.
Access rights here
Conditional Right to roam: Right to roam only on mapped CRoW open access land.
Permission needed Wild camping: Needs the landowner's permission — the Dartmoor commons are the only exception in England.
General position for England — local byelaws, seasonal restrictions and closures can override it. Full details: access rights in England · check another location.
Daylight at this summit today
- Sunrise
- —
- Sunset
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- Daylight
- —
- Civil twilight ends
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Computed astronomically for 51.288, 0.057. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.
Summit weather live
Loading forecast for the summit (251 m)…
Forecast adjusted to summit altitude. Weather data from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0).
Finding the summit
summit is 45m N of site of old fort (TQ 43555 56332) which is higher but on man-made ground.
The recorded summit point is no feature: ground by lane. That distinction matters on broad or flat tops, where the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.
- Record revised
- 08-Jun-09
- Drop measured from
- TQ411559 · 236 m
Survey notes are field observations recorded in the Database of British & Irish Hills (v18.3, CC BY 4.0) by the hill-surveying community.
Long-distance paths past this hill
2 waymarked long-distance routes run within 2.5 km of the summit — useful if you are linking this hill into a longer walk, or want a made path for the approach.
| Route | Total length | From summit |
|---|---|---|
| North Downs Way | 202 km | 0.6 km |
| Tandridge Border Path | 87 km | 0.8 km |
Route lines © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL); distance from the summit computed by OpenFell.
Which hill this one belongs to
Betsom's Hill is not counted as an independent hill in its own right. In prominence terms it belongs to Botley Hill — the nearest Marilyn you can reach from this summit without first dropping below its key col, 236 m. That hill is outside the lists OpenFell publishes, so it has no page here.
Grouping is by prominence alone: a summit belongs to the nearest higher Marilyn it connects to without a deeper intervening col. Over a large massif that can gather hills no one would walk in a single day, and which few would describe as parts of the same mountain — it is a measure of independence, not a suggested route.