Plackwald

The Plackwald is a high, flat-topped ridge, roughly 500 to 550 m, that runs eastwards from the Großer Berg near the Arnsberg village of Oeventrop over the Warsteiner Kopf and Nuttlarhöhe to the Brilon Plateau. Geologically the hill ridge comprises folded rocks of the Upper Carboniferous. In the Nuttlar Bowl, quartzitic argillaceous and greywacke slates of the Arnsberg Beds of the Namurian stage form the subsoil. Frequently, the horizons of argillaceous slate have been obliterated.^[2][3]

To the north the Plackwald descends comparatively gently to 450 m the Breitenbruch Forest (334.32) and Warstein Hills. To the south it drops steeply and suddenly into the Ruhr valley, around 250 metres below. The upper edge of the scarp of the truncated upland follows the Plackweghöhe, which runs along the southern edge of the Upper Arnsberg Forest, to the Inner Sauerland Basins (335). As a result, the climate in the Plackwald is harsher and, with around 1,000 mm of precipitation annually, wetter that in other areas of the North Sauerland Uplands. The average temperature in May/July is roughly 12 to 13 °C. The podsolic soils are poor in bases, sandy-loamy and of medium depth. In the spring hollows there is a tendency for stagnant water and bogs to form.^[2][3]

The hills, eminences, spurs and other prominent high spots of the Plackwald include the following, sorted by height in metres (m) above sea level (NHN) (unless otherwise stated ^[1]):

• Plackweghöhe (581.5 m), north-northeast of Eversberg (on the Plackweg); with the Lörmecke Tower
• Unnamed top (557.4 m), south-southeast of the Meschede Transmission Tower
• Warsteiner Kopf (556.9 m), north-northeast of the Eversberg
• Gemeinheitskopf (551.9 m), north-northwest of Föckinghausen
• Unnamed top (550.6 m), northwest of the Meschede Transmission Tower (on the Plackweg)
• Niekopf (550.4 m), north of Eversberg; source region of the Wideybach
• Wiemert (544.2 m), north of Föckinghausen
• Ensterknick (543.2 m), hamlet and fields north of Meschede-Galiläa (on the Plackweg)
• Nuttlarer Höhe (542.2 m^[4]), north of Nuttlar
• Stimmstamm (541.1 m), Passhöhe an B 55, north of Meschede
• Liverhagen (522.6 m^[4]), north of Eversberg
• Moosberg (522.0 m), north of Meschede
• Hornscheid (519.7 m), north of Eversberg
• Brandenberg (509.3 m), north of the Meschede Transmission Tower
• Neuer Berg (504.2 m), southwest of Hirschberg
• Wennemer Höhe (503.3 m), north of Wennemen
• Kopf (500,8 m), northeast of Eversberg
• Blumenkopf (Südkopf, 500.7 m), southwest of Warstein, near the B 55
• Blumenkopf (Nordkopf, 498.9 m), southwest of Warstein, near the B 55
• Großer Berg (476.0 m), northeast of Freienohl
• Meidenberg (466.7 m), southeast of Hirschberg