Its summit, 241 metres (791 ft), is the highest point on the island,[1] with views on a clear day stretching over 70 miles from Beachy Head to the east, Walbury Hill to the north, the Isle of Portland to the west and the French coast of Normandy to the south.

[2] There is reputed to be a wishing well on its southern slope, which requires the wisher to climb up from the south without looking back.

In 1940, the radar station was bombed by Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers, which is reconstructed in the film "The Battle of Britain".

The gravel capping supports extensive tracts of gorse Ulex europaeus with intervening areas of heathland and acid grassland dominated by heather Calluna vulgaris, bell heather Erica cinerea, purple moor-grass Molinia caerulea, bristle bent Agrostis curtisii and locally bilberry Vaccinium myrtillus.

The occurrence of heathland on deep gravel overlying chalk, the naturalised holm oak woodland and the juxtaposition of heath and chalkland vegetation are all unusual biological features in Britain.