Brilon Plateau

View from the Itzelstein on the edge of Brilon looking north across the Brilon Plateau

Unnamed high point (51°25′4.9″N 8°41′13.3″E / 51.418028°N 8.687028°E / 51.418028; 8.687028; 545.1 m) in *Am Battenberg* Nature Reserve

The Brilon Plateau (German: Briloner Hochfläche) is a highland area in the county of Hochsauerlandkreis in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. It is surrounded by the Brilon Heights (Briloner Höhen), whose mountains reach a height of 670.2 m above sea level (NHN).^[1]

Geography

Location

The countryside of the Brilon Plateau and Brilon Heights includes the town of Brilon itself and several of its municipalities. Administratively it belongs largely to Hochsauerlandkreis, in the northeast, near Bleiwäsche, it is part of the county of Paderborn. It is roughly elliptical in shape; its longitudinal axis running from east-northeast to west-southwest.

To the north and northeast it transitions via the Alme Uplands into the Sintfeld. In the east and southeast it descends into the very deeply incised valley of the Hoppecke. In the south it is adjoined by the Sauerland and Upland (landscapes in the Rothaar Mountains); in the west by the Warstein Forest (the eastern part of the Arnsberg Forest Nature Park) and in the northwest by the narrow Haarstrang. In the north the terrain descends (on the far side of Sintfeld and Haarstrang) more or less gently into the Westphalian Bight towards the River Lippe. The plateau forms an island of farmland in the middle of forested mountains and hills.

Mountains and hills

The mountains and hills of the Brilon Heights include the following (sorted by height in metres (m) above sea level (NHN):

Borberg (670.2 m)^[1] – southwest of Brilon
Bilstein (620.1 m)^[1] – northwest of Hoppecke
Eisenberg (606.2 m)^[2] – südwest of Brilon
Poppenberg (605.0 m)^[1] – south of Brilon
Weiße Frau (562.5 m)^[3] – east of Rösenbeck
Heimberg (536.4 m)^[2] – east of Brilon
Totenkopf (502.6 m)^[1] – west of Marsberg
Schaaken (500 m)^[3] – east-northeast of Brilon
Schälhorn (499.1 m)^[1] – east of Scharfenberg
Bulstern (482.3 m)^[2] – west of Wülfte
Schweinskopf (481.4 m)^[1] – east-southeast of Bleiwäsche
Schellberg (472 m)^[3]

Literature

Gerd Petermeyer (1982), Zur Morphogenese der Brilon Plateau und des Sintfeldes, Düsseldorf {{citation}}: Unknown parameter |kommentar= ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Wolfgang Feige (1970), Fachstelle Geographische Landeskunde des Westfälischen Heimatbundes (ed.), Die Brilon Plateau, Landschaftsführer des westfälischen Heimatbundes, vol. Heft 7, Münster: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, ISBN 3-402-06343-3

Footnotes and references

^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Topographic Information Management, Cologne - NRW GEObasis Division (info)
^ ^a ^b ^c Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation
^ ^a ^b ^c Height based on unknown or un-researched source

51°25′12″N 8°37′50″E / 51.42000°N 8.63056°E / 51.42000; 8.63056

[DE-NW_TIM-1] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g Topographic Information Management, Cologne - NRW GEObasis Division (info)

[DE_BFN-Karten-2] Map services of the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation

[UQ-3] Height based on unknown or un-researched source

[1]

[2]

[3]