May Hill is a prominent English hill between Gloucester and Ross-on-Wye. Its summit, on the western edge of Gloucestershire and its northern slopes in Herefordshire, is distinguishable by a clump of trees on its summit, which forms an official Site of Special Scientific Interest. It is reached by three public footpaths, two as parts of the Gloucestershire Way and Wysis Way.

Toponymy

There is an unverified story that May Hill was named after a certain Captain May who used it as a landmark when navigating the Severn estuary, but documents from a couple of hundred years ago relate that the hill was known as Yartleton Hill and was renamed because of the May Day events held there. Each May Day, morris dancers dance in the new dawn on the top of May Hill and hundreds of observers join in the celebration.

Geology

May Hill is formed of sandstones and siltstones known as the May Hill sandstone, consisting of the Huntley Hill and Yartleton formations. These rocks date from the Early Silurian period and are formed into a dome, cut through by several faults. The most significant of these is the Blaisdon Fault, which forms the eastern boundary of May Hill and separates it from the younger rocks of the Severn Vale.

Ecology and SSSI status

The summit of May Hill () is a biological and geological Site of Special Scientific Interest in Gloucestershire, notified in 1954.

May Hill is listed in the Forest of Dean Local Plan Review as a Key Wildlife Site (KWS).

Much of May Hill is wooded, both coniferous and deciduous, but the summit area is grassland and heath, with a small amount of heather and gorse. The immediate summit is topped with mature Corsican pines, planted in 1887 to mark Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee. One very old Scots Pine is a generation older, but which regrettably suffered badly in an ice storm in early 2012. The trees make May Hill an identifiable landmark from many miles away. The younger trees were planted to mark Queen Elizabeth's Silver Jubilee. Early maps and accounts show a clump of trees on the top before these plantings.

History

The hill includes a circular trench 100 metres in diameter, thought to be an Iron Age earthwork, surrounding a mound that is probably a round barrow.

An area of 30 ha of the hill passed into the care of the National Trust in 1935, Ivor Gurney eulogised "May Hill that Gloucester dwellers 'gainst every sunset see." Composer Gerald Finzi's ashes were scattered on the top in 1973. One of the benches on the summit is dedicated to the Forest of Dean chronicler, Winifred Foley, and her husband, who had moved to the nearby village of Cliffords Mesne in the 1970s. A book of paintings and drawings of May Hill has been published by the artist Valerie McLean.

References

  • Photos of May Hill on www.geograph.org.uk
  • Photos of May Hill on www.wyenot.com
  • Panoramic view of May Hill
  • Video of May Day sunrise celebration on May Hill (2010)
  • Natural England (SSSI information)