Burnhope Seat - Trig Point

About Burnhope Seat - Trig Point

This trig point stands on Burnhope Seat, a high moorland fell of the North Pennines AONB, between the headwaters of the Tees, South Tyne and Wear. The Durham-Cumbria boundary runs across the summit area.

The pillar marks the highest ground in historic County Durham, although Mickle Fell is higher within the modern administrative county, and the true summit of the fell lies about 400 m west and a metre higher on the Cumbrian side. The plateau is typical high Pennine country: broad, poorly drained, tussock grass and peat bog. The B6277 between Alston and Middleton-in-Teesdale runs within 2 km, and Weardale offers an approach as part of a circuit of Burnhope Reservoir.

Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Burnhope Seat (CC BY-SA 4.0). Heights, prominence and grid references come from the Database of British & Irish Hills, not from Wikipedia.

Access rights here

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

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Sunset

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Daylight

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Civil twilight ends

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Computed astronomically for 54.732, -2.331. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.

Finding the summit

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

Abney level

Record revised

12-Sep-20

Drop measured from

NY 7878 3752 · 746.5 m

Classification history: Durham County Top, given as summit in the Nuttalls book. Highest point of fell is hill 2714 in Cumberland..

Survey notes are field observations recorded in the Database of British & Irish Hills (v18.3, CC BY 4.0) by the hill-surveying community.

Which hill this one belongs to

Burnhope Seat - Trig Point is not counted as an independent hill in its own right. In prominence terms it belongs to Burnhope Seat (748 m) — the nearest Marilyn you can reach from this summit without first dropping below its key col, 747 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