The Plackweghöhe ("Plackweg Heights"), whose main summit has hitherto had no official name, is the highest point in the borough of

Warstein Warstein () is a municipality with town status in the district of Soest, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is located at the north end of Sauerland. Geography Warstein is located north of the Arnsberger Wald (forest) at a brook called Wäs ...

, the hill ridge of the

Plackwald The Plackwald is a ridge of hills, up to , and part of the Rhenish Massif in the counties of Soest and Hochsauerlandkreis, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Within the North Sauerland Highlands (Unit number 334) it forms the natural region sub-uni ...

, the North Sauerland Uplands, and the

Arnsberg Forest Nature Park The Arnsberg Forest Nature Park (german: Naturpark Arnsberger Wald) is a nature park in the districts of Hochsauerlandkreis and Soest within the administrictive region of Arnsberg in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The park was est ...

in the German state of

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia (german: Nordrhein-Westfalen, ; li, Noordrien-Wesfale ; nds, Noordrhien-Westfalen; ksh, Noodrhing-Wäßßfaale), commonly shortened to NRW (), is a States of Germany, state (''Land'') in Western Germany. With more tha ...

. It is and lies within the counties of Soest and

Hochsauerlandkreis Hochsauerlandkreis (meaning “High Sauerland District” in German) is a Kreis (district) in the east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Neighboring districts are Soest, Paderborn, Höxter, Waldeck-Frankenberg, Siegen-Wittgenstein, Olpe, Mär ...

. The Lörmecke Tower observation tower at the top is a popular destination.

Geography

Location

The Plackweghöhe lies in the northern

Sauerland The Sauerland () is a rural, hilly area spreading across most of the south-eastern part of North Rhine-Westphalia, in parts heavily forested and, apart from the major valleys, sparsely inhabited. The Sauerland is the largest tourist region in ...

. In the area of its main summit it is around 5 km south of

(in Soest) and about 3 km north-northeast of

Meschede Meschede () is a town in the Hochsauerland district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is the capital of the district Hochsauerlandkreis. Education One of the five branches of South Westphalia University of Applied Sciences (also: Fachhoc ...

(in Hochsauerlandkreis). It is linked via the ''Plackweg'' forest track with the Stimmstamm Pass (541.1 m) over the Plackwald hills about 2.85 km away to the west

as the crow flies __NOTOC__ The expression ''as the crow flies'' is an idiom for the most direct path between two points, rather similar to "in a beeline". This meaning is attested from the early 19th century, and appeared in Charles Dickens's 1838 novel '' Oliv ...

on the B 55 federal highway. The area is drained towards the south into the nearby

River Ruhr __NOTOC__ The Ruhr is a river in western Germany (North Rhine-Westphalia), a right tributary (east-side) of the Rhine. Description and history The source of the Ruhr is near the town of Winterberg in the mountainous Sauerland region, at an el ...

and to the north to the Ruhr's tributary, the

Möhne The Möhne () is a river in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is a right tributary of the Ruhr. The Möhne passes the towns of Brilon, Rüthen and Warstein. There is a large artificial lake near the mouth of the river, the Möhne Reservoir, use ...

, several kilometres away. The highest point is shown on commercial maps just as an unnamed trig point, even though it is the summit of a hill range in the

Central Uplands The Central UplandsDickinson (1964), p.18 ff. (german: die MittelgebirgeN.B. In German die ''Mittelgebirge'' (plural) refers to the Central Uplands; das ''Mittelgebirge'' refers to a low mountain range or upland region (''Mittel'' = "medium" and ...

and is more than 20 metres higher than other summits in the range.

Natural regions

The Plackweghöhe belongs to the major unit group of the

Süder Uplands The Süder Uplands

Name

The name ''Plackweghöhe'' does not just cover the hill itself, but a ridge along the old trading route of the Plackweg. It is mentioned in 1969 on the ''Arnsberg Sheet'', after the same author, in 1963, had not used it in the ''Arolsen Sheet''. The term does not relate explicitly to the highest point, but to the entire, roughly 20-km-long ridgeline of the North Sauerland scarp on the

Ruhr The Ruhr ( ; german: Ruhrgebiet , also ''Ruhrpott'' ), also referred to as the Ruhr area, sometimes Ruhr district, Ruhr region, or Ruhr valley, is a polycentric urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population density of 2,800/km ...

watershed between the hills of ''Großer Berg'' (476.0 m) in the west and the ''Großen Storchschnabel'' (ca. 516.7 m) in the east, along which ridgeline the Plackweg runs. The ridge is asymmetrically oriented towards the south and drops steeply into the Ruhr.

References and footnotes

The Vogelsang lies southeast of

in the natural region unit of the Upper Ruhr Basin (''Oberruhrgesenke'') (335.0). Isolation and prominence from TK 25 with assistance of ''Elevation Contours'' in

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...

; the gap falls at least below the 480 m

contour line A contour line (also isoline, isopleth, or isarithm) of a function of two variables is a curve along which the function has a constant value, so that the curve joins points of equal value. It is a plane section of the three-dimensional grap ...

Martin Bürgener: ''Geographische Landesaufnahme: The natural region units on Sheet 110 Arnsberg.'' Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde, Bad Godesberg, 1969. →&nbs
Online-Karte
(PDF; 6,1 MB), mit Westteil der Untereinheit ''Plackweghöhe (Plackwald)'' Martin Bürgener: ''Geographische Landesaufnahme: The natural region units on Sheet 111 Arolsen.'' Bundesanstalt für Landeskunde, Bad Godesberg, 1963. →&nbs
Online map
(pdf; 4.1 MB), with the eastern half of the ''Plackweghöhe (Plackwald)'' sub-unit. {{DEFAULTSORT:Plackweghohe Mountains and hills of North Rhine-Westphalia Mountains and hills of the Rhenish Massif