14th September 2010 Calf Top - almost a mountain

Calf Top, on the western fringe of the Yorkshire Dales beyond Gragareth and Great Coum, makes an attractive walk from the village of Barbon.  But unlike its more famous neighbours you are likely to have the summit to yourself as it is listed by the Ordnance Survey at 609 metres.  But those indomitable surveyors John Barnard and Graham Jackson had their doubts.  Hauling their equipment to the summit they took their measurements.  Then they went back and did it all over again.  Then they conferred with the Ordnance Survey who put all the data through another computer program that adjusts for such esoteric things as the distortion to GPS signals caused by their passage through the Troposphere.  The conclusion is that Calf Top just fails by a gnat's whisker to achieve 2000ft.  Strangely though the OS are going to list it as 610 metres (you see they round up the measurements).  So it's not a new mountain; you don't have to go and climb it.  Still why not go anyway.  Like we said, it's a great walk.


Calf Top from Castle Knott

John and Graham's report