Kit Hill

About Kit Hill

Rising prominently above the Tamar Valley, this granite-topped Marilyn offers a landscape shaped by deep mining history. Crowned by a Victorian stack, the summit provides a sweeping vantage point between the silhouettes of Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor, making it a rugged, heritage-rich alternative to the higher tors of the Devon border.

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Did You Know?

• •The name derives from the Old English word 'cyta', meaning a kite or bird of prey. While red kites are now a rarer sight here than they were in the Middle Ages, the hill remains an excellent vantage point for spotting buzzards and sparrowhawks riding the thermals over the Tamar Valley.
• •The summit is dominated by a 24-metre-tall granite chimney known as the Summit Stack. Built in 1858, it served the Hingston Down Consols mine; its presence serves as a stark reminder of the intense tin and copper mining that once honeycombed the hill's interior.
• •From the highest point, you can look east across the River Tamar to the western edges of Dartmoor, specifically the television mast on North Hessary Tor. On a clear day to the south, the cranes of the Devonport Dockyards and the waters of Plymouth Sound are clearly visible.
• •As one of Cornwall’s five Marilyns, its isolation provides a significant prominence relative to the surrounding lowlands. This prominence led the Prince of Wales to designate the site as a Country Park in 1985, marking the 650th anniversary of the Duchy of Cornwall.
• •Despite its status as a 'Country Park'—a title that might suggest manicured lawns and gentle paths—the terrain remains a stubbornly Cornish mix of granite scree and thick gorse that will quickly disabuse any walker of the notion they are in a suburban garden.