Five questions about Britain’s highest… — Quick Quiz answers

By British Expat, 31 October 2015

We asked you in which county you would find Britain’s highest in various categories. Here come the answers!

1. Village: You’d be forgiven for assuming that Britain’s highest village must be somewhere in Scotland. So did the inhabitants of Wanlockhead in Dumfries & Galloway for many years, who believed their village to be the record-holder at 1531 feet (467 metres). However, a recalculation by the Ordnance Survey in 2007 using satellites established that even Wanlockhead’s highest house was only 1456 feet (444 metres) above sea level—whereas the highest house in Flash in the Staffordshire Peak District, previously surveyed at 1518 feet (463 metres), was in fact 40 feet higher at 1558 feet (475 metres), a good hundred feet (30 metres) higher than its Scottish rival.
2. Mainline railway: The highest in the UK is at 452 metres (1480 feet) above sea level at the Pass of Drumochter, on the border of Scotland’s Highland and Perth & Kinross council areas. Drumochter is also the highest point on the A9 between Perth and Inverness, at 460 metres (1508 feet). Although it has majestic views, it’s often closed in winter and is (unsurprisingly) uninhabited; the nearest village is Dalwhinnie, 10 km (six miles) to the north.
3. Commercial airport: this is Leeds Bradford Airport, seven miles (11 km) north-west of Leeds in West Yorkshire. It’s in the shadow of the Pennines and is often beset by low cloud and high winds, which makes it a challenge for pilots landing there.
4. Pub: still within Yorkshire, but across the border in North Yorkshire is the famous Tan Hill Pub, on the Pennine Way between the valleys of Arkengarthdale, Swaledale and Teesdale. We use the word “famous” advisedly, as it regularly makes the news when people are snowed in during the winter—most recently in March 2013.
5. Waterfall: Britain’s highest is Eas a’ Chual Aluinn, near Kylesku in Sutherland, in the Highland council area in Scotland. The name was originally Eas a’ Chùil Àlainn (“waterfall of the beautiful tresses”). It falls 200 metres (658 feet) from top to bottom.

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