High Hill

Overlooking the market town of Settle, this limestone-crested Tump offers a rugged, quintessential Dales character. Its steep, grassy slopes lead to a summit plateau defined by limestone pavement, providing a superb vantage point over the Ribble Valley and the gritstone heights of the Forest of Bowland.

• •The name is a straightforward English descriptor, likely used by generations of Settle residents to distinguish this prominent elevation from the lower pastures bordering the River Ribble.
• •The hill forms part of a nationally important limestone landscape, sitting just above Victoria Cave, where excavations in the 19th century revealed 130,000-year-old remains of hippos, rhinos, and elephants.
• •The summit plateau provides a clear, unencumbered view of the Yorkshire Three Peaks, with the distinctive crouching-lion profile of Pen-y-ghent appearing particularly close to the north.
• •Walkers often combine an ascent with a visit to the nearby Attermire Scar, an impressive crescent of limestone cliffs that served as a filming location for the 1992 production of Wuthering Heights.
• •While the name suggests a certain lack of local imagination, the terrain more than compensates for it, offering a more interesting scramble than many of its more grandly titled neighbours.