South Yorkshire

SOUTH YORKSHIRE: High Stones (1,798 feet/550 metres)

53° 26′ 43″ N, 1° 43′ 6″ W

Another no nonsense name for the highest point in South Yorkshire. It’s a blink and you’ll miss it kind of place, marked by a pile of stones. Now the pile of stones is not particularly high in itself, to call it a Cairn would be making a mountain out of a mole hill, but it is a pile of stones and it is 550 metres high. So “High Stones” seems a suitable enough name for this county top. Admittedly, it’s not a name you’ll find on many a map. It’s there on my 1:25,000 OL1 Explorer map but not my 1:50,000 110 Landranger map. You’ll find it on Google though, which if we’re honest most of you are using these days anyway.

There’s not much else of interest up the top of Howden Moors, but the view from Howden Edge is spectacular, looking out across the Northern reaches of the Peak District. It grieves me as a Yorkshireman, that so many think of the Peak District as entirely within Derbyshire. Truth be told there are beautiful walks within the National Park’s boundaries to be found in Cheshire, Staffordshire, Yorkshire and even Greater Manchester.

Admittedly, stood at High Stones you’ll find yourself gazing down across the pretty peaks of Derbyshire. In the foreground is the picturesque Derwent Reservoir, on which test runs of the bouncing bomb (made famous by the film “The Dambusters“) were carried out. If memory serves me right, they were dropped from Lancasters, and that’s a county rivalry for another day…