RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Virginia >> Roanoke County >> Castle Hill >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

As we travel, we like to pursue some of our interests (such as astronomy and bird watching).

When in Castle Hill, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Castle Hill and the surrounding area.

  • Weather ...
  • Astronomy & Satellites ...
    • Whether using binoculars, a small telescope or the naked-eye, the Heavens-Above website can help you to find your way around the night-time sky. In addition to detailed sky charts, their website will help you find planets, asteriods, comets, satellites and their tracks across the sky.
    • To give accurate results, Heavens-Above requires the latitude and longitude of your location. As a starting point, when we link to Heavens-Above, we pass this GPS location for Castle Hill:
    • 37.230693, -79.998371
    • Once you're on the Heavens-Above website, you can improve its accuracy by giving a more precise longitude and latitude as your actual position.
    • Open the Heavens-Above website centered on Castle Hill
  • Bird Watching ...
    • We enjoy finding new spots for bird watching and we use the eBird website for local sighting reports and to help identify hotspots.
    • The eBird website is organized on a county-by-county basis. We have selected Roanoke County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Roanoke County
    • Since Castle Hill is near Roanoke City and also Salem City, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Roanoke City
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Salem City
  • Waymarking ...
    • Looking for somewhere out of the ordinary? Find a unique place and want to share it with others? Then it's time to visit Waymarking.com:
    • Open the Waymark.com report for Castle Hill

Communities Also Named Castle Hill ...

We found five communities that are also named Castle Hill.

Within Virginia, the name Castle Hill is unique.

Beyond Virginia, we know of five communities that are located in the United States.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Florida
      • Lake County
      • This Castle Hill is located in Lake County and lies 607 miles [976.9 km]<1> to the south of the Castle Hill that is located in Roanoke County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Lake County community of Castle Hill.
    • Iowa
      • Black Hawk County
      • This Castle Hill is located in Black Hawk County and lies 750 miles [1,207 km]<1> to the west northwest of the Castle Hill that is located in Roanoke County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Black Hawk County community of Castle Hill.
    • Maine
      • Aroostook County
      • This Castle Hill is located in Aroostook County and lies 888 miles [1,429.1 km]<1> to the northeast of the Castle Hill that is located in Roanoke County.
      • For more information, please visit our profile page for the Aroostook County community of Castle Hill.
    • Massachusetts
      • Essex County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Massachusetts community of Castle Hill [Essex County].
    • New York
      • Bronx County
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<2> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the New York community of Castle Hill [Bronx County].

Curious and Interesting Names Near Castle Hill ...

As we travel, we always see a community with a name that gives pause. While there are names which are interesting or familiar, some catch our attention or strike our fancy. We always wonder about such a name. If time permits and the community is not too far, we'll usually try to make a side-trip.

  • Castle Rock
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Castle Rock is located in Roanoke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Castle Rock
  • Cave Spring
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Cave Spring is located in Roanoke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cave Spring
  • Chestnut Hills
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Chestnut Hills is located in Roanoke City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Chestnut Hills
  • Crescent Heights
    (Less than 2 miles to the south)
    • Crescent Heights is located in Roanoke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crescent Heights
  • Crest Hill
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Crest Hill is located in Roanoke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crest Hill
  • Crystal Spring
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
    • Crystal Spring is located in Roanoke City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Crystal Spring
  • Green Valley
    (Less than 2 miles to the east)
    • Green Valley is located in Roanoke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Green Valley
  • Greenland Hills
    (Less than 2 miles to the north)
    • Greenland Hills is located in Roanoke City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Greenland Hills
  • Hidden Valley Court
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Hidden Valley Court is located in Roanoke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hidden Valley Court
  • Highfields
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Highfields is located in Roanoke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Highfields
  • Homeplace
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Homeplace is located in Roanoke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Homeplace
  • Homewood
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
    • Homewood is located in Roanoke County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Homewood
  • Continue List   (16 more) ...
    • Hunting Hills
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Hunting Hills is located in Roanoke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hunting Hills
    • Lemon Dell
      (Less than 2 miles to the northeast)
      • Lemon Dell is located in Roanoke City
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lemon Dell
    • Meadowlark
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
      • Meadowlark is located in Roanoke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Meadowlark
    • Narrows
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
      • Narrows is located in Roanoke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Narrows
    • Peakwood Hills
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
      • Peakwood Hills is located in Roanoke City
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Peakwood Hills
    • Rosecrest
      (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
      • Rosecrest is located in Roanoke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Rosecrest
    • Scenic Hills
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southwest)
      • Scenic Hills is located in Roanoke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Scenic Hills
    • Spring Valley
      (Less than 2 miles to the north)
      • Spring Valley is located in Roanoke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Valley
    • Springlawn
      (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
      • Springlawn is located in Roanoke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Springlawn
    • Sugar Loaf Farms
      (Less than 2 miles to the west)
      • Sugar Loaf Farms is located in Roanoke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sugar Loaf Farms
    • Sugar Loaf Highlands
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
      • Sugar Loaf Highlands is located in Roanoke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sugar Loaf Highlands
    • Sugar Loaf Hills
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the west)
      • Sugar Loaf Hills is located in Roanoke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sugar Loaf Hills
    • Sunset Hills
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
      • Sunset Hills is located in Roanoke City
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Sunset Hills
    • Virginia Heights
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the north)
      • Virginia Heights is located in Roanoke City
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Virginia Heights
    • Wildwood
      (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northeast)
      • Wildwood is located in Roanoke City
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wildwood
    • Woods Crossing
      (Less than 2 miles to the south)
      • Woods Crossing is located in Roanoke County
      • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Woods Crossing

How Far From Castle Hill to ...

We spend a lot of time looking through Gazetteers & Almanacs that were published in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Many of the Gazetteers include the distance from a community such as Castle Hill to various places of note, such as the White House.

With a nod to our favorite Gazetteers, the straight-line distance beginning in Castle Hill and extending to:

  • Richmond, which is the State Capital of Virginia, lies 142 miles [228.5 km]<1> to the east (E). If you could drive a straight line from Castle Hill to Richmond, with an average speed<3>of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, it would take less than three hours to make the trip. A comfortable walk of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour would take 8 days. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take 6 days.
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 197 miles [317 km] to the northeast (NE). Driving would take a little over three hours, a buggy would take 8 days and walking would take 12 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 6,095 miles [9,809 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,800 miles [10,943.5 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,677 miles [7,526.9 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'straight-line' distance. A straight line distance ignores things like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Castle Hill) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<2>If we encounter the name of what might be a community, our methodology is to add that name to our Gazetteer as a placeholder. As we find more information about that community, it will be added to our Gazetteer.

Just as a reminder: Our definition of a community is rather broad and includes those places (or areas) where several families lived and had a name which identified that place. For example, you might hear somebody say that they are going over to Bird Creek to see Pete ... Bird Creek is just a gas station and a couple of homes at the crossroads. While it might not be on the map, everybody in the area knows it by that name.

Places of interest include buildings at a crossroad, several families clustered in a hollow or maybe the location of a way station. It also includes places like mines, lumber camps, ferry crossings, etc. The community might still exist, is now gone or only existed for just a short period of time.

Also keep in mind that Castle Hill could have been on the original document by mistake, misspelled, the original/alternate name of a community that we've listed elsewhere or was placed in the wrong county. Sometimes a post office or train station would have a different name than the community where it's located, so two names might be referring to the same community - we're working to straighten it all out.
<3>While we have tried to pick reasonable speeds, the rate of travel is very theoretical - obstacles like fences, hills, lakes, river crossings and rest stops have been ignored. When we say 'Days' of travel, we're assuming 8 hours of travel per day.
<4>The shortest line can be visualized by stretching a string on a Globe from Point A to Point B - this is known as a Great Circle Route. Where you might expect the shortest route from Castle Hill to the Middle East to be East and South, the Great Circle Route actually lies to the North and East.Our distance measurements begin at a specific point in Castle Hill. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.2307, Longitude: -79.9984       In this case, the coordinates for Castle Hill have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 309.707 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 305.258 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 306.539 degrees.