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Alan Dawson: Accurate surveying work by John Barnard and Graham Jackson has shown convincingly that Birks Fell is 610m and is therefore reinstated as a Marilyn, overtaking 609m Horse Head Moor, which superseded it in 1996.
Richard Webb: This SubMarilyn could be promotion material. I have two grounds for consideration: 1) The grid reference and height given is 217m, for a point near the hill fort. This is shown as 218m on the 1:50k map. 2) There are three 215m ring contours. One is the current summit, another is the trig at 215m (this is obviously the lowest of the three) and another at NT948584 looks higher than the official summit from both tops. It could well be in! It's a very easy hill, on farmland, with a friendly farmer.
Graham Bunn: We initially went up Beinn Bhreac from Talisker in September 1997. We followed the sea cliffs, with waterfalls being blown back inland and soaking us, then visited the top of Preshal Beg on our way up to the trig on Beinn Bhreac, descending Sleadale to Talisker. In September 2002 we bought Explorer map 411 and noted the two spot heights of 448m, with the trig marked as 445m (see Marhofn 93).
We decided to revisit Beinn Bhreac to confirm we had been to the summit. We started from NG371296 on the Carbost to Eynort road and headed straight uphill to the top of Stockval (416m), descended to Loch Sleadale and across to the bealach. At this point the weather changed dramatically but we continued toward the top. After much effort in torrential horizontal rain, we gave up trying to find the top and trig and found our way back to the bealach. I made a note to buy a GPS.
So, last September we decided to make another effort at confirming we had been to the top of Beinn Bhreac. We started at the same point on the Carbost to Eynort road and took the track to the shielings at 362286. We then followed the fence used on our previous descent and headed south past the lochan up to the trig on Beinn Bhreac.
The three prominent points at the top are the trig at 343267 (415m on map), an unmarked point at 344267 (418m on map) and a cairn at 345269 (418m on map). My GPS and watch altimeter both gave the trig and unmarked top exactly the same height. The cairn gave the same height on the watch but a slightly lower height on the GPS. My opinion based on these readings and views from different directions would give the trig as slightly the higher point. Has the OS just transferred data from an old map?
We descended alongside the gorge on the Kearra burn (the weather had again deteriorated), and followed the burn back to the sheilings and the boggy path to the car. In our opinion the ascent of Beinn Bhreac is best done from Talisker, as we did on our initial ascent, and I am convinced we did visit the summit on that occasion.
Alan Dawson: In poor visibility on Christmas Day Brent and I visited the trig point and the unmarked summit but not the cairn, so I entirely agree with your conclusions.
Alan Dawson: In June 2005 my Suunto altimeter recorded a difference of 151-152m between the summit of the SubMarilyn Beinn Dearg and the col at NC278647. At the top of Creag Riabhach about 30 minutes later the reading was accurate to within one metre. As I was in the middle of an 11-hour walk over six Marilyns (or was it seven?) I didn't feel like going back up Beinn Dearg to check the readings. However, further measurements would be very useful, if anyone happens to be near Cape Wrath with an accurate altimeter on a calm day. The minor top just north of the col, at 277649, is known to be 304m, so it should only take a few minutes to repeat altimeter readings at this top and the col, in order to establish the col height.
David Purchase: In Marhofn 93, Eddie Dealtry suggested that Stand Knowe was higher than Cacra Hill, even though the Ordnance Survey give Cacra Hill (471m) an extra five metres. I visited these two hills in October with my reliable Huger altimeter (see Marhofn 153, p12). Over a period of 75 minutes, starting and finishing at the 403m col at NT329168, I took several readings. Both summits were visited twice and the readings were always consistent to within one metre. The col readings at the beginning and end were the same, so the pressure was stable. The altitude of Cacra Hill was always 5m or 6m greater than that of Stand Knowe. It is inconceivable that the altimeter could be so much in error that Stand Knowe is actually the higher. I think it must have been, to use Eddie's words, 'a fantastic illusion'. Perhaps more open to question is whether Cacra Hill is higher than Wedder Lairs (470m at 341172). A spot height difference of only 1m is within the margin of error. But the two summits are over 2km apart, so any readings would be inconclusive with such a small difference.
Tom Read: This is my local hill, so I can confirm that it is known locally as Bosley Cloud. There is even a real ale brewed in Macclesfield called Bosley Cloud.
The Cloud from the west (photo: Alan Dawson)
Tom Read: I always assumed this lay on the border between England and Wales, and hence could be arbitrarily placed in either. However, my visit there revealed that the summit cairn, which appears to be at exactly the right spot, is a full ten metres away from the English border (aka the Offa's Dyke path), and is fully in Wales.
Tom Read: Locals that I know in that area insist that the name of the hill and summit is Lowick High Common, with Kirkby Moor being the name of the wider area.
Peter Collins: After adding a stone to the cairn on Meall nan Damh, it is now definitely higher than Carn na Coinnich!
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