Castle Hill, Huddersfield - a recce !

[Phil_G]

Today i went to check out Castle Hill, which I'm aware has been used for slope soaring, though until now I'd never tried...
Its an elongated hill-fort sitting at about 40°, about 350m ASL and has a large, convenient car-park and a large inconvenient stone tower
Just below the flat summit is a circular path so access is easy in any wind direction.
Its not a huge site but potentially could work for most wind directions, and I enjoy flying somewhere new
The North-West face seems best to me, not that high but clear and quite steep and maybe 200 yards long.
Unfortunately today it was SSE, not ideal as the bottom corner is covered in trees and gorse - but theres plenty of lift so these are no trouble
If you zoom in on Google Maps satellite view you'll see a grated well in line with the South corner of the tower - this is where I was flying today.

I took quite a few pics to try to give an impression as a soaring site, and stuck them in a video.
In several shots you can see Emley Moor TV tower, this is 7km away on a bearing of 98 degrees, so just slightly south of due east.



Heres somone elses drone video which nicely shows the overall layout of the hill fort:



Anyone been?

Cheers
Phil

[Shaun]

I'm certain I used to go there occasionally when I was at Huddersfield poly .

[Phil_G]

When the Huddersfield club was primarily a slope-soaring club this was listed as one of their sites.
It is a public attraction though so I would suggest mid-week is best, avoiding weekends when its likely to be busy.
I missed one pic and used another twice, rank amateur, this one was taken at the top-right corner beyond the trees on the NW slope where its clear again, the tall white chimney is Kirklees Recycling Facility which is due North of Castle Hill so the camera is facing NE ish.