Broad Law
4 classifications here — Current County/UA Top, Marilyn, HuMP and Simm — belong to lists OpenFell holds only part of, so they have no list page. See how far the coverage goes.
- Height
- 840.1 m · 2,756 ft
- Prominence
- 653.5 m
- Grid reference
- NT 14643 23533
- Coordinates
- 55.49813, -3.35273
- County / area
- Scottish Borders
- OS Landranger
- 72
- OS Explorer
- 330 336
- Summit feature
- trig point
- Key col
- NS 5876 1647 (186.6 m)
About Broad Law
Broad Law is the high point of the Manor Hills in the Southern Uplands, and the highest ground in the Scottish Borders. Its 653 metres of prominence make it a major summit, with an isolation of 81 kilometres; only Merrick, its parent, beats it in southern Scotland, and then by just three metres.
The hill itself is smooth, rounded and grassy, in the manner of its neighbours, though the glens around it fall away steeply — country the Wikipedia description likens to the Cheviots or Howgills. The summit carries a radio tower and the highest VOR beacon in the UK.
It is the county top of the historic county of Peeblesshire, and is sometimes wrongly listed as the top of Selkirkshire.
Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Broad Law (CC BY-SA 4.0). Heights, prominence and grid references come from the Database of British & Irish Hills, not from Wikipedia.
Access rights here
Yes Right to roam: Statutory right of responsible access to most land and inland water.
Yes Wild camping: Wild camping is broadly lawful under the 2003 Act.
General position for Scotland — local byelaws, seasonal restrictions and closures can override it. Full details: access rights in Scotland · check another location.
Daylight at this summit today
- Sunrise
- —
- Sunset
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- Daylight
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- Civil twilight ends
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Computed astronomically for 55.498, -3.353. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.
Summit weather live
Loading forecast for the summit (840 m)…
Forecast adjusted to summit altitude. Weather data from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0).
Finding the summit
cairn on mound 2m SE may be as high.
The recorded summit point is trig point. That distinction matters on broad or flat tops, where the obvious cairn is not always the true high point.
- Survey method
- Leica RX1250
- Record revised
- 09-Jul-22
- Drop measured from
- NS 5876 1647 · 186.6 m
Classification history: Selkirkshire county top moved from hill 1845 Dun Rig following the 1891 boundary changes..
Survey notes are field observations recorded in the Database of British & Irish Hills (v18.3, CC BY 4.0) by the hill-surveying community.
The Broad Law group
7 other listed summits sit in the same prominence group, with Broad Law as the independent hill at its head.
| Summit | Height | Drop |
|---|---|---|
| Cramalt Craig | 830 m | 147 m |
| Dollar Law | 817 m | 70 m |
| Pykestone Hill | 737 m | 131 m |
| Middle Hill | 717 m | 42 m |
| Talla Cleuch Head | 691 m | 63 m |
| Drumelzier Law | 668 m | 97 m |
| Greenside Law | 643 m | 77 m |
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.
Nearest listed peaks
| Peak | Height | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Talla Cleuch Head | 691 m | 2.1 km |
| Cramalt Craig | 830.2 m | 2.5 km |
| Dollar Law | 817 m | 5.3 km |
| Erie Hill | 690 m | 5.3 km |
| Greenside Law | 643 m | 5.5 km |
| Molls Cleuch Dod | 785 m | 5.6 km |