Shining Tor is the highest hill in

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, England. The summit has a maximum elevation of above sea level. It is in the

Peak District The Peak District is an upland area in England at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southe ...

, between the towns of

Macclesfield Macclesfield is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East in Cheshire, England. It is located on the River Bollin in the east of the county, on the edge of the Cheshire Plain, with Macclesfield Forest to its east ...

in Cheshire and

Buxton Buxton is a spa town in the Borough of High Peak, Derbyshire, England. It is England's highest market town, sited at some above sea level.

Derbyshire Derbyshire ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East Midlands, England. It includes much of the Peak District National Park, the southern end of the Pennine range of hills and part of the National Forest. It borders Greater Manchester to the nor ...

, and is on the administrative boundary between Derbyshire and

Cheshire East Cheshire East is a unitary authority area with Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The local authority is Cheshire East Council. Towns within the area include Crewe, Macclesfield, Co ...

. The hill is at the south end of a north-south moorland ridge, which also includes Cats Tor, high. There is also another hill named Shining Tor, above

Dovedale Dovedale is a valley in the Peak District of England. The land is owned by the National Trust and attracts a million visitors annually. The valley was cut by the River Dove, Central England, River Dove and runs for just over between Milldale ...

in Derbyshire, at

grid reference A projected coordinate system, also known as a projected coordinate reference system, a planar coordinate system, or grid reference system, is a type of spatial reference system that represents locations on the Earth using cartesian coordin ...

Ascent

The hill offers many walking routes to the top, perhaps most commonly from the

Upper Goyt Valley The Upper Goyt Valley is the southern section of the valley of the River Goyt in North West England. Position The source of the Goyt River is on Axe Edge Moor above Goyt's Moss to the south. The western side of the valley is a long ridge, runn ...

by Errwood reservoir, perhaps combined with a walk along the ridge north from Shining Tor over Cats Tor. It can also be gained with less climbing from the

Cat and Fiddle Inn The Cat and Fiddle Inn is the second-highest public house in England, the Tan Hill Inn being the highest. In 2020, the outlet was sold to a distiller, who intend to open Britain's highest-altitude whisky distillery. It is in the Peak District ...

Views

As it is the highest point around (it is some higher than the summit of

Axe Edge Moor Axe Edge Moor is the major moorland southwest of Buxton in the Peak District. It is mainly gritstone (Namurian shale and sandstone). Its highest point () is at . This is slightly lower than Shining Tor (which is some to the northwest, across th ...

above Buxton), the views are pleasant, though the relatively flat uplands mean they are not extensive in all directions: the view to the southwest of the peak of

Shutlingsloe Shutlingsloe is a hill near the village of Wildboarclough, in the east of the county of Cheshire. It stands to the south of Macclesfield Forest, on the edge of the Peak District and within the Peak District National Park.

above Wildboarclough is particularly notable, and in clear conditions Winter Hill near

Bolton Bolton (, locally ) is a large town in Greater Manchester in North West England, formerly a part of Lancashire. A former mill town, Bolton has been a production centre for textiles since Flemish people, Flemish weavers settled in the area i ...

, the city of

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

and much of the Cheshire Plain can be seen, including the radio telescopes at

Jodrell Bank Jodrell Bank Observatory () in Cheshire, England, hosts a number of radio telescopes as part of the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics at the University of Manchester. The observatory was established in 1945 by Bernard Lovell, a radio astron ...

to the west. In very clear but not unusual conditions North Wales and even

Snowdonia Snowdonia or Eryri (), is a mountainous region in northwestern Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three national parks in Wales, in 1951. Name and extent It was a commonly held belief that the nam ...

can be seen. The hill is used by

amateur radio Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, is the use of the radio frequency spectrum for purposes of non-commercial exchange of messages, wireless experimentation, self-training, private recreation, radiosport, contesting, and emergency communic ...

operators for

Summits On The Air Summits On The Air (SOTA) is an amateur radio operating award program launched in Great Britain in 2002 by John Linford. The aim of SOTA is to encourage licensed amateur radio operators to operate temporarily from mountainous locations using any m ...

activations (G/SP-004, 2 points). Cat and Fiddle road from Shining Tor

Geology

The north–south ridge of Shining Tor including the summit itself is formed from the Chatsworth Grit, a thick sandstone of

Namurian The Namurian is a stage in the regional stratigraphy of northwest Europe with an age between roughly 326 and 313 Ma (million years ago). It is a subdivision of the Carboniferous system or period and the regional Silesian series. The Namurian is ...

age which occurs widely across the Peak District. The beds dip moderately steeply to the east into a north–south-aligned

syncline In structural geology, a syncline is a fold with younger layers closer to the center of the structure, whereas an anticline is the inverse of a syncline. A synclinorium (plural synclinoriums or synclinoria) is a large syncline with superimpose ...

known as the Goyt Trough. Shining Tor is thought to have stood above the ice sheet during the last ice age and so is free from glacial deposits. The eastern dipslope and shallower parts of its western flanks are covered by

peat Peat (), also known as turf (), is an accumulation of partially decayed vegetation or organic matter. It is unique to natural areas called peatlands, bogs, mires, moors, or muskegs. The peatland ecosystem covers and is the most efficien ...

up to several metres deep.British Geological Survey map sheet 111 'Buxton' & accompanying memoir

References

{{Peaks of the Peak District Marilyns of England Mountains and hills of the Peak District Hills of Cheshire Mountains and hills of Derbyshire Highest points of English counties