Arbury Hill

Arbury Hill
Northamptonshire
Arbury Hill from the west
Summit:	738 feet SP5401558770 52°13’28"N, 1°12’38"W

Arbury Hill in Northamptonshire is a distinctly shaped hill found 5½ miles south-west of Daventry. At 738 feet, Arbury Hill’s summit is the highest point in Northamptonshire.

The hill is part of a three-way watershed. Northamptonshire has the remarkable distinction that no river nor stream however small enters the county from elsewhere, though it is the source of several rivers issuing from the county. On the slopes of Arbury Hill are the sources of:

• The River Nene, which flows north-west and ultimately to the Wash;
• The River Leam (from the Leam Pool, Hellidon) flowing west to the Warwickshire Avon and whose waters ultimately reach the Severn Estuary and the Atlantic; and
• The River Cherwell flowing due south to the Thames at Oxford, its waters taken thence to the North Sea.

The hill is privately owned and not generally accessible.

Earthworks

On the summit of Arbury Hill there are the vestiges of an fortification, which is usually identified as an Iron Age Fort although this was disputed by the Royal Commission in 1981. The remains are in the form of a square ditch and embankment about 200 yards across; rather an unusual formation for an Iron Age fort.

Pictures

• 
  The headwater of the Nene, on the north-east slope of Arbury Hill
• 
  The southern side of the Hill

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Arbury Hill)