Black Down, Somerset

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Black Down, Somerset
A view of Black Down from near Charterhouse Wireless Station in the Mendip Hills
Elevation	325 m (1,068 ft)
Location	Mendip Hills, England
Prominence	c. 241 m
Topo map	OS Landranger 141
OS grid reference	ST484572
Listing	Marilyn

Black Down is an area of Open Access common on the Mendip Hills, Somerset, England. The hill is largely of a moorland characteristic, with dense cover of associated vegetation, including Heather and Bracken.

The summit of Black Down is Beacon Batch, the highest point of the Mendip Hills. The summit is a popular site and is marked with a Ordnance Survey trig point, the base of which was recently rebuild by the Mendip Hills AONB authority.

During World War II a decoy town was constructed on Black Down which was intended to represent the blazing lights of a town which had omitted to follow black out regulations. The success of this endeavour is questionable, with no ground indications that the hills were used as targets.^[1]

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