Watch Croft - G/DC-007 SOTA (2025)

Summits on the Air Activation Report

Activation Date: Saturday 7th June, 2025.
Activator(s): Richard M1HAX.
Summit: Watch Croft, Devon & Cornwall, England.
Summit ID: SOTA reference G/DC-007 (1 point).
Summit Height: 253m elevation, 226m prominence.
Summit Location: Lat./Long. 50.16503, -5.61347. Maidenhead Grid IO70ed.
Distance: 2.6km travelled with 61m of ascent.
Difficulty: SAC Grade T1.^(?)
Elapsed Time: 50m (including operating).
Weather: 13°C, sunny, 31kph WNW wind, 85% humidity.
Radio Equipment: Yaesu FTM100D, Diamond RH-770, Zippy 4200mAh 4S LiFePo4, Elecraft KX2, AX1.
Callsign Used: M1HAX/P.
Contacts: 8 (2m FM, 70cm FM, 20m SSB).

Trip Notes

Watch Croft, standing at 253 metres, is the highest point in West Penwith and one of only five Marilyns in Cornwall. The Cornish name Carnonbigh reflects its prominence, though the English name derives from its use as a lookout during the Napoleonic Wars - before this it was known as Carn an Vyth, meaning “little cairn”. With 227 metres of prominence, this modest hill punches well above its weight. The summit lies within both the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and the St Just Mining District World Heritage Site, with Bronze Age cairns and Iron Age hut circles dotting the surrounding moorland.

I activated this summit after completing Brown Willy earlier in the day, en route to a rock-climbing trip at Sennen Cove. Driving along minor roads near Morvah, I reached a roadside parking area with space for several cars.

This hill is quick and easy - approximately 1.2 kilometres out and back with just 61 metres of ascent. A gravel access track covers most of the distance, transitioning to a grassy trail for the final approach to the summit. Warning signs about mine shafts serve as a reminder of the area’s industrial heritage.

The summit features a trig point surrounded by rocks, with the rest of the area heavily vegetated. Views extend out to sea, across Mount’s Bay to the Lizard peninsula, and north towards Pendeen Watch lighthouse. The summit area is extremely rocky, and dense thorny gorse bushes dominate the surroundings. Finding space to guy out a mast and deploy antenna ends here would be awkward. I would recommend wearing sturdy boots and tough long trousers here.

I spent about half an hour operating two radios, achieving eight contacts across 2-metre FM, 70-centimetre FM, and 20-metre SSB using my Yaesu FTM100D and Elecraft KX2 with AX1 antenna.

An easy summit well worth doing if you’re in the area.

Photos

Below are some photographs taken during my activation of Watch Croft on Saturday 7th June, 2025.

Walking Route for Watch Croft

The interactive map below shows my GPS track taken to the SOTA activation zone for Watch Croft. The G/DC-007 summit area is marked on the map with a blue pin icon.

You can download the route shown above as a GPX file suitable for use with most GPS devices. This file is provided for information only, to support your own walk planning and research (it may contain navigation errors, detours and/or safety hazards). The route downloads provided here are governed by the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.

Station Log

I logged the following 8 amateur radio contacts operating as M1HAX/P from G/DC-007 Watch Croft on Saturday 7th June, 2025 (all times shown are UTC):

In the notes field I will usually log the other operator’s name and the signal report they provided. In accordance with the Summits on the Air rules, I do not make a log entry where a complete exchange of callsigns and signal reports was unsuccessful.

Additional Information

The following resources may be helpful to walkers, mountaineers and SOTA activators interested in Watch Croft:

• Sotl.as Summit Page for G/DC-007 Watch Croft.
• Hill Bagging UK Summit Page for Watch Croft.
• Google Maps Page for Watch Croft.
• Wikipedia entry for Watch Croft.

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