Ward Hill
3 classifications here — Current County/UA Top, Marilyn and HuMP — belong to lists OpenFell holds only part of, so they have no list page. See how far the coverage goes.
- Height
- 481 m · 1,578 ft
- Prominence
- 481 m
- Grid reference
- HY 22863 02238
- Coordinates
- 58.90061, -3.34051
- County / area
- Orkney Islands
- Region
- Orkney Islands
- OS Landranger
- 6 7
- OS Explorer
- 462
- Summit feature
- large cairn 12m W of trig point
About Ward Hill
Ward Hill occupies the north of Hoy, between Moaness and Rackwick, and at 481 metres it is the highest point in Orkney and in the Scottish Northern Isles as a whole. It forms a curved ridge shaped roughly like a letter J, with the highest summit towards the northern end and a trig point on it.
Heather and grass clothe the lower slopes, while the crest is small stones over bare sandy soil. The ridge stands well apart from the rest of Hoy's hills: the Glens of Kinnaird separate it from Cuilags, and from Knap of Trowieglen it is divided by the glen carrying the Moaness-Rackwick road, where the Dwarfie Stane lies.
The liverwort Anastrepta orcadensis, or Orkney Notchwort, was first found here by William Jackson Hooker in 1808.
Background written from facts in the Wikipedia article on Ward Hill, Hoy (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
- —
- Daylight
- —
- Civil twilight ends
- —
Computed astronomically for 58.901, -3.341. Plan your finish with the daylight safety planner.
Summit weather live
Loading forecast for the summit (481 m)…
Forecast adjusted to summit altitude. Weather data from MET Norway (CC BY 4.0).
Finding the summit
mound on which cairn is built could be man-made.
The recorded summit point is large cairn 12m W of 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
- 15-Jan-03
Survey notes are field observations recorded in the Database of British & Irish Hills (v18.3, CC BY 4.0) by the hill-surveying community.