Telegraph Hill (267 metres, 876 feet high''Telegraph Hill''
at Database of British and Irish Hills. Accessed on 22 Mar 2013.) is a hill about 1 mile northwest of

Minterne Magna Minterne Magna is a village and civil parish in Dorset, England, situated midway between Dorchester and Sherborne. In the 2011 census the parish had a population of 184. The village is sited near the source of the River Cerne among the chalk ...

and about 10 miles north of Dorchester in the county of

Dorset Dorset ( ; archaically: Dorsetshire , ) is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the unitary authority areas of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole and Dorset (unitary authority), Dors ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. Its prominence qualifies it as one of the so-called

HuMP The mountains and hills of the British Isles are categorised into various lists based on different combinations of elevation, prominence, and other criteria such as isolation. These lists are used for peak bagging, whereby hillwalkers attempt ...

s. There is a transmission mast about 600 metres away on the spur to the northeast at High Stoy. Writing in 1906,

Sir Frederick Treves Sir Frederick Treves, 1st Baronet (15 February 1853 – 7 December 1923), was a prominent British surgeon, and an expert in anatomy. Treves was renowned for his surgical treatment of appendicitis, and is credited with saving the life of K ...

described High Stoy as "the most engaging of all Dorset hills—a hill of 800 feet, made up of green slopes, a cliff, and a mantle of trees." Opposite High Stoy is Dogbury Hill, another bastion of the chalk escarpment. A Franciscan friary lies in the hamlet of

Hilfield Hilfield is a small, scattered village and civil parish in west Dorset, England, situated under the scarp face of the Dorset Downs south of Sherborne. Dorset County Council's 2013 estimate of the parish population is 50. Hilfield parish churc ...

beneath the hill to the west.

Films

The area of Minterne, Dogbury Hill and High Stoy was the setting for

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry of William Word ...

's novel, ''

The Woodlanders ''The Woodlanders'' is a novel by Thomas Hardy. It was serialised from May 1886 to April 1887 in ''Macmillan's Magazine'' and published in three volumes in 1887. It is one of his series of Wessex novels. Plot summary The story takes place in ...

'', Minterne House being referred to as Great Hintock House. The 1990s TV film of Hardy's '' Tess of the d'Urbervilles'' was made on Dogbury Hill.

Sport

Telegraph Hill is a popular

paragliding Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a harness or lies supine in a cocoon-like 'po ...

spot.''Where We Are''
at www.flyingfrenzy.com. Accessed on 22 Mar 2013.

Gallery

File:Sunlit Woods on Telegraph Hill - geograph.org.uk - 1120126.jpg, Early morning sun rising through woods on south side of Telegraph Hill File:Bridlepath sign near telegraph hill - geograph.org.uk - 82173.jpg, Bridlepath sign near Telegraph Hill

References

Hills of Dorset {{Dorset-geo-stub