Brown Willy

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Highest point in Cornwall, England

title: "Brown Willy" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["buildings-and-structures-completed-in-the-18th-century-bc", "bodmin-moor", "highest-points-of-english-counties", "hills-of-cornwall", "marilyns-of-cornwall", "autumn-equinox", "cairns-(stone-mounds)", "bronze-age-sites-in-cornwall", "sacred-mountains-of-the-united-kingdom"] description: "Highest point in Cornwall, England" topic_path: "geography/united-kingdom" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Willy" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Highest point in Cornwall, England ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox mountain"]

FieldValue
nameBrown Willy
other_nameBronn Wennili
photoBrown Willy.jpg
photo_captionBrown Willy from the summit of Rough Tor
elevation_m420
elevation_ref
prominence_m314
parent_peakHigh Willhays
listingMarilyn, County Top
locationBodmin Moor, Cornwall, UK
mapUnited Kingdom Cornwall (mainland)#UK
map_captionBrown Willy shown within Cornwall
coordinates
grid_ref_UKSX158799
topoOS Landranger 201
::

| name = Brown Willy | other_name = Bronn Wennili | photo = Brown Willy.jpg | photo_caption = Brown Willy from the summit of Rough Tor | elevation_m = 420 | elevation_ref = | prominence_m = 314 | prominence_ref = | parent_peak = High Willhays | listing = Marilyn, County Top | location = Bodmin Moor, Cornwall, UK | map = United Kingdom Cornwall (mainland)#UK | map_caption = Brown Willy shown within Cornwall | range = | coordinates = | grid_ref_UK = SX158799 | topo = OS Landranger 201 | type = | age = | first_ascent = | easiest_route =

Brown Willy (possibly meaning "hill of swallows" or meaning "highest hill") is a hill in Cornwall, United Kingdom. The summit, at 1378 ft above sea level, is the highest point of Bodmin Moor and of Cornwall as a whole. It is about 2+1/2 mi northwest of Bolventor and 4 mi southeast of Camelford. The hill has a variable appearance that depends on the vantage point from which it is seen. It bears the conical appearance of a sugarloaf from the north but widens into a long multi-peaked crest from closer range.{{cite book | title = The Rough Guide to Britain | last = Humphreys | first = Rob | page = 360 | year = 2008 | publisher = Rough Guides | isbn = 978-1-85828-549-8 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/roughguidetobrit00roug/page/360

Toponymy

The first part of the hill's name is a common Brythonic element meaning "breast, pap; hill-side, slope, breast (of hill)", which is frequent in Welsh placenames.{{cite book | title = Celtic voices, English places: studies of the Celtic impact on place-names in England | last1 = Coates | first1 = Richard | last2 = Breeze | first2 = Andrew | publisher = Shaun Tyas | year = 2000 | isbn = 978-1-900289-41-2 The name has evolved through a variety of historical spellings as follows: Brunwenely c.1200, 1239; Brown Wenely 1239; Brenwenelyn 1276; Bronwenely, Brunwely 1280; Brounwenely 1350, 1362; Broun Welyn 1386; Brounwenyly 1401; Brownwenelegh 1450, 1470; Brounwellye, Bronwelly 1576; Brown-wellye 1584; Brounwellie 1639; Menar Brownuello 1754.{{cite book | title = A popular dictionary of Cornish place-names | page = 60 | last = Padel | first = Oliver James | author-link = Oliver Padel | publisher = A. Hodge | year = 1988 | isbn = 978-0-906720-15-8

It has frequently been noted on lists of unusual place names.{{cite book |url = https://books.google.com/books?id=29zh3dIgmv8C&pg=PR8 |title = Welcome to Horneytown, North Carolina, Population: 15: An insider's guide to 201 of the world's weirdest and wildest places |publisher = Adams Media |author = Parker, Quentin |year = 2010 |pages = viii |isbn = 9781440507397 | url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-20203832 | title = Campaign to change Brown Willy's name | date = 5 November 2012 | work = BBC News | url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/9655920/Hands-off-Brown-Willy.html | title = Hands off Brown Willy | work = The Daily Telegraph | date = 5 November 2012

Geography and geology

The summit of Brown Willy is 1378 ft above sea level, the highest point on Bodmin Moor and in the county of Cornwall.{{Cite book | author = Charles Knight | title = The English Cyclopaedia: Geography | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=kvJBAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA1-PT191 | access-date = 4 January 2013 | year = 1866 | publisher = Bradbury, Evans | pages = 588 | author = Charlotte Maria S. Mason | title = The Forty Shires: Their History, Scenery, Arts, and Legends, p. 297 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PAgHAAAAQAAJ | access-date = 17 March 2011 | year = 1881

The hill is part of a 1221 acre estate known as Fernacre and includes a five-bedroom farm house. The property was put on the market in September 2016 for £2.8 million and sold to an undisclosed buyer the following April. The new owner has the grazing rights for the property and shooting rights for deer, snipe and woodcock. Under the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, the public will continue to have the right to walk on the hill.

Brown Willy Cairns

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7d/Trig_point_and_summit_cairn,Brown_Willy-geograph.org.uk-_1005985.jpg" caption="Brown Willy Summit (North) Cairn with [[Ordnance Survey]] triangulation station"] ::

There are two man-made cairns on the summit.{{cite book | author1 = Prehistoric Society (London | author2 = England) | title = Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, p. 343 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=GZSBAAAAMAAJ | access-date = 18 March 2011 | year = 2006 | publisher = Prehistoric Society | author = Sabine Baring-Gould | title = A Book of Cornwall | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=Qm8KAQAAMAAJ | access-date = 17 March 2011 | year = 1923 | publisher = Methuen & Co. Ltd.

The Cornish word for "cairn" is karn (from karnow, meaning "rock piles"), and it has been suggested that Cornwall's ancient name Kernow is related.{{Cite book | author = R. Morton Nance | title = An English-Cornish and Cornish-English Dictionary|orig-year=1934 | date = July 1990 | publisher = Originally printed for the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies by J. Lanham | isbn = 978-1-85022-055-8 | author = William Copeland Borlase | title = Nænia Cornubiæ, a descriptive essay, illustrative of the sepulchres and funereal customs of the early inhabitants of the County of Cornwall|orig-year=1872 | date = April 1994 | publisher = Longmans, Green, Reader, and Dyer, London | isbn = 978-1-897853-36-8 | author1 = Nicholas Johnson | author2 = Peter Rose | author3 = Desmond Bonney | title = Bodmin Moor: an archaeological survey. The human landscape to c.1800, p. 40 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_2itAAAACAAJ | access-date = 22 May 2011 | date = July 1994 | publisher = English Heritage | isbn = 978-1-85074-381-1 | author = Karin Altenberg | title = Experiencing Landscapes: A Study of Space and Identity in Three Marginal Areas of Medieval Britain and Sweden, p. 109 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=7twWAQAAIAAJ | access-date = 17 March 2011 | date = October 2003 | publisher = Almqvist & Wiksell | isbn = 978-91-22-01997-8

Rodney Castleden has suggested that from the centre of Stannon stone circle, the autumn equinox sun rises over Brown Willy North Cairn.{{Cite book | author = Rodney Castleden | title = Neolithic Britain: New Stone Age Sites of England, Scotland, and Wales | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=-wYOAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA48 | access-date = 17 March 2011 | year = 1992 | publisher = Routledge | isbn = 978-0-415-05845-2 | pages = 48– | author = Christopher Tilley | title = Interpreting Landscapes: geologies, topographies, identities; | series = Explorations in Landscape Phenomenology 3 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=uk-1r0dtefgC&pg=PA386 | access-date = 3 May 2011 | date = 15 July 2010 | publisher = Left Coast Press | isbn = 978-1-59874-374-6 | pages = 389–

Recreation

::quote

::

| quote = Here, in his deafness and his loneliness,

My father's sad grey eyes in gathering dusk

Saw Roughtor and Brown Willy hide the view

Of that bold coast-line where he was not born— | source = —John Betjeman, Summoned by Bells (1960){{cite book | last = Betjeman | first = John | author-link = John Betjeman | title = Summoned by Bells | chapter = Chapter VIII: Cornwall in Adolescence | publisher = John Murray | year = 1960 | page = 79 | width = 30% | align = right Brown Willy is a popular destination for walkers and is said to be one of "the UK's best-loved high points". The hill features in an annual race held on New Year's Day that starts and finishes at Jamaica Inn, an old coaching inn made famous by Daphne du Maurier's 1936 novel of the same name.

Brown Willy and Rough Tor are listed in a Ward Lock travel guide from the 1920s as places to visit, saying that 'The scenery is wildly grand, rugged and bleak' and recommending hiring a vehicle from Camelford for the visit.

The hill is regarded as a sacred mountain by members of the Aetherius Society, a UFO religion founded in 1954 by George King. They believe that Brown Willy was charged with "holy energy" on 23 November, which they celebrate each year as "Charging Day", and gather at the hill on that day each year to celebrate the sun's alignment with "positive and negative rocks".

Environment

Main article: Brown Willy effect

The hill is known for a meteorological phenomenon known as the Brown Willy effect, in which heavy rainfall develops over high ground and then travels downwind for a long distance. The effect produces heavy localised rain which can cause disastrous flash flooding such as the Boscastle flood of 2004. In another case when the effect was manifested, a continuous line of showers developed on 27 March 2006 stretching 145 mi from Brown Willy to Oxfordshire.

Brown Willy is unusual in that, unlike other hills on Bodmin Moor, there is little evidence of prehistoric settlement around it. It may have instead been set aside for use as a communal area for people from the surrounding settlements, who may have used the ridge as a ceremonial procession route. There are no house circles or platforms in the area of the summit. The remains of seventeen houses and platforms have been found on the lower part of the eastern slopes and another 23 low on the western slopes; they were crudely constructed and probably only used seasonally. Nearly two-thirds of them were constructed in positions with a clear line of sight to the summit of Brown Willy and the nearby hill of Rough Tor, suggesting that the hilltops were viewed as special places. ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Desertedvillagebrownwilly.jpg" caption="A deserted village in the valley inbetween Brown Willy and [[Showery Tor"] ::

Media

It is the location for a comedy film of the same name, about two 40-year-old former school-friends on a misguided stag do, written and directed by Brett Harvey.

References

References

  1. Bathurst, David. (2012). "Walking the county high points of England". Summersdale.
  2. (13 September 2016). "Brown Willy: Cornwall's highest point up for sale at £2.8m".
  3. (1912). "History in Cornish place-names". Oxford University.
  4. (27 April 2017). "Brown Willy is sold". The Cornishman.
  5. (2015). "OS Explorer Bodmin Moor". Ordnance Survey.
  6. [http://www.kdl.org.uk/dyllansow/gerva.pdf Gerva Kynsa dhe Dressa Gradh] – Quick Reference Online Cornish Dictionary
  7. Muir, Jonny. (2011). "The UK's County Tops: Reaching the top of 91 historic counties". Cicerone.
  8. (1936). "Jamaica Inn". HarperCollins.
  9. (1927). "A pictorial and descriptive guide to Newquay and North Cornwall". Ward, Lock & Co.
  10. (7 December 2011). "Society visits its holy mountain of Brown Willy on pilgrimage". Cornish Guardian.
  11. "Floods". UKTV.
  12. (2008). "Stone Worlds: Narrative and Reflexivity in Landscape Archaeology". Left Coast Press.
  13. Bender, Hamilton & Tilley (2008), p. 388
  14. Bender, Hamilton & Tilley (2008), p. 440
  15. Gilbey, Ryan. (27 April 206). "Brown Willy is Cornwall's answer to Withnail & I". [[New Statesman]].

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::

buildings-and-structures-completed-in-the-18th-century-bcbodmin-moorhighest-points-of-english-countieshills-of-cornwallmarilyns-of-cornwallautumn-equinoxcairns-(stone-mounds)bronze-age-sites-in-cornwallsacred-mountains-of-the-united-kingdom