Roseberry Topping
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Template:Infobox british hills (no image) Roseberry Topping is a distinctive hill on the border between North Yorkshire and Cleveland, England, of which it has long been a symbol. Its summit has a distinctive half-cone shape with a jagged cliff, which has led to many comparisons with the somewhat higher Matterhorn in Switzerland. Until just before the First World War, the summit resembled a sugarloaf until a geological fault and possibly nearby ironstone mining caused its collapse. The area immediately below the summit is still extensively pitted and scarred from the former mineworks. The summit has magnificent views across the Cleveland plain as far as the Pennines on a clear day, some 40 or 50 miles away.
At 320 m (1049 ft), Roseberry Topping was traditionally thought to be the highest hill on the North York Moors; however, the nearby Urra Moor is comfortably higher, at 454m (1490 ft).
The Roseberry area has been inhabited for thousands of years and the hill has long attracted attention for its distinctive shape. A Bronze Age hoard was discovered on the slopes of the hill and is now in Sheffield Museum. It was occupied during the Iron Age, as demonstrated by walled enclosures and the remains of huts.
The hill was held in special regard by the Vikings who settled in Cleveland in large numbers during the early medieval period and gave the area many of its placenames. They gave Roseberry Topping its present name, which is one of only a handful of known pagan names in England. Roseberry is a corruption of Odins-Beorge ("Odin's Hill"), in reference to the Norse god Odin. The name mutated in successive years to Othensberg, Ohenseberg, Ounsberry and Ouesberry before finally settling on Roseberry. "Topping" is a corruption of toppen, an old Norse word for a hill.
Roseberry Topping can be seen from many miles away and was long used by sailors and farmers as an indicator of changing weather. An old rhyme commemorates this usage:
- When Roseberry Topping wears a cap,
- Let Cleveland then beware of a clap!
The hill was private property for many years, formerly being part of a game estate (an old shooting box can still be seen on the flanks of the hill), but it is now managed by the National Trust and is open to the public. It is not part of the North York Moors National Park but is managed as, in effect, an adjunct of the park.
External links
- 360° views: the Topping from the bottom (http://www.bbc.co.uk/tees/360/topbot.shtml) - 360° views of Roseberry Topping from the BBC
- National Trust web page on Roseberry Topping (http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/scripts/nthandbook.dll?ACTION=PROPERTY&PROPERTYID=367)
- Photographs of Roseberry Topping (http://www.outunder.fsnet.co.uk/)