North Pennines
Elbolton
348M
1142FT
About Elbolton
Rising as a distinctive, conical limestone reef knoll above the village of Thorpe, this modest hill offers character far beyond its height. The steep, grassy ascent leads to a compact summit providing a superb vantage point over lower Wharfedale, looking across to the gritstone edges of Simon’s Seat.
Key Statistics
Rank
257th Highest in Region
Parent Range
Yorkshire Dales
Prominence
?
Data coming soon
Nearest Town
Hartlington
Geology
You are walking on the Bowland Shale Formation. This fell is made of mudstone, which formed when deep layers of mud were pressed into solid rock.
Classifications
Find It
OS Grid Reference
SE006615
Latitude
54.0416°N
Longitude
1.9567°W
Did You Know?
- •The name likely derives from the Old English 'bōtl-tūn', meaning a farmstead with a significant building, possibly once associated with a Saxon settler named Ælla.
- •Geologically, it is one of the 'Cracoe Reef Knolls', a chain of limestone hills that originated as coral reefs in a shallow tropical sea roughly 330 million years ago.
- •Elbolton Cave, situated on the hill's slopes, was a site of significant archaeological interest in the 1880s, revealing evidence of Neolithic occupation and the bones of extinct species including cave bears and lynx.
- •The summit offers a unique perspective of the 'Green Field' system around Thorpe below, providing a remarkably clear bird's-eye view of a preserved medieval settlement layout.
- •The hill’s profile is so reliably symmetrical that it appears significantly more imposing from the valley floor than its modest 348-metre stature suggests once you actually start walking.