Harlow Hill Tower (Observatory) is a Grade II listed building in the North Yorkshire local planning authority area, England. First listed on 18 July 1949. Tower, observatory. 1 related planning application.
Harlow Hill Tower (Observatory)
- WRENN ID
- dim-mullion-thyme
- Grade
- II
- Local Planning Authority
- North Yorkshire
- Constituency
- Harrogate and Knaresborough MP: Tom Gordon (LD)
- Country
- England
- Date first listed
- 18 July 1949
- Type
- Tower, observatory
- Address
- Harlow Hill Tower (Observatory), Otley Road, Harrogate, HG2 0AZ
- OS grid reference
- SE 288 541
- Coordinates
- 53.98292, -1.56229
- Source
- Historic England listing
Description
Harlow Hill Tower, also known as the Observatory, was built around 1829 by John Thompson as a 90-foot high viewpoint. It offers views of "three cathedrals, seven battlefields, seventeen castles, twenty-three abbeys, twenty market towns, over seventy gentleman's seats, and nearly two hundred churches" according to Hargrave. The tower is a plain square structure made of hammer-dressed ashlar. It features a modern domed observatory roof and an upper storey with plain coping. The tower has irregularly placed loops and includes a two-storey entrance extension on the east side, which has a tiled roof and a first-floor doorway accessed by steps.
Local climate
Harlow Hill Tower (Observatory) receives an average of 860 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 62% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 58% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 44 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 86% of listed buildings. Of these, 24 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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