RoadsideThoughts
A Gazetteer for the United States and Canada
Home >> State of Virginia >> Richmond County >> Fernleigh >> Tidbits & TriviaIndex...

Outdoor Activities ...

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

When in Fernleigh, we use the following websites to find information relevant to Fernleigh 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 Fernleigh:
    • 37.542369, -77.574433
    • 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 Fernleigh
  • 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 Richmond County as the starting point when you click on the link below:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Richmond County
    • Since Fernleigh is near Chesterfield County and also Henrico County, we have provided a link to their eBird sighting reports:
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Chesterfield County
    • Open the eBird sighting report for Henrico County
  • 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 Fernleigh

Communities Also Named Fernleigh ...

We found two communities that are also named Fernleigh.

Within Virginia, the name Fernleigh is unique.

Beyond Virginia, we know of two communities that are located in Canada.

  • Communities Elsewhere In North America ...
    • Nova Scotia
      • We found mention of this community, but have little information.<1> For the information that we do have, please visit our profile page for the Nova Scotia community of Fernleigh.
    • Ontario
      • This Fernleigh lies 509 miles [819.2 km]<2> to the north of the Fernleigh that is located in Richmond County.

Curious and Interesting Names Near Fernleigh ...

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.

  • Cherokee Hills
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the east)
    • Cherokee Hills is located in Richmond County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Cherokee Hills
  • Grand Summit
    (Less than 2 miles to the southeast)
    • Grand Summit is located in Chesterfield County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Grand Summit
  • Granite
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Granite is located in Richmond City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Granite
  • Gravel Hill
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Gravel Hill is located in Richmond City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Gravel Hill
  • Hobby Hill Farms
    (Less than 2 miles to the west)
    • Hobby Hill Farms is located in Richmond County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Hobby Hill Farms
  • Holiday Hills
    (Less than 2 miles to the northwest)
    • Holiday Hills is located in Chesterfield County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Holiday Hills
  • Lorraine
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the northwest)
    • Lorraine is located in Henrico County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lorraine
  • Lower Tuckahoe
    (4 miles [6.4 km] to the northwest)
    • Lower Tuckahoe is located in Goochland County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Lower Tuckahoe
  • Mooreland
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the northwest)
    • Mooreland is located in Henrico County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Mooreland
  • Old Gun
    (Less than 2 miles to the southwest)
    • Old Gun is located in Chesterfield County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Old Gun
  • Spring Grove
    (2 miles [3.2 km] to the southeast)
    • Spring Grove is located in Chesterfield County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Spring Grove
  • Willow Oaks
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the east)
    • Willow Oaks is located in Richmond City
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Willow Oaks
  • Wiseville ‑ Historic
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the south)
    • Wiseville is located in Chesterfield County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Wiseville
  • Ziontown
    (3 miles [4.8 km] to the north)
    • Ziontown is located in Henrico County
    • Jump to our Gazetteer entry for Ziontown

How Far From Fernleigh 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 Fernleigh to various places of note, such as the White House.

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

  • Warsaw, which is the Seat of Richmond County, lies 53 miles [85.3 km]<2> to the east northeast. If you could walk a straight line from Fernleigh to Warsaw, with an average speed<3> of 2.2 miles [3.5 km] per hour, it would take most of three days to make the trip. A horse and buggy averaging 3.2 miles [5.1 km] per hour would take over two days.
  • Richmond, which is the State Capital of Virginia, lies just to the east (E).
  • The White House (Washington, DC) is 98 miles [157.7 km] to the north northeast (NNE). Driving, with an average speed of 63 miles [101.4 km] per hour, would take less than two hours, a buggy would take three full days and walking would take 6 days.
  • The shortest distance<4> to Jerusalem (specifically the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock) is 5,978 miles [9,620.7 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<5>
  • The distance to the Great Mosque of Mecca (specifically the Ka'bah - or Kaaba ) is 6,678 miles [10,747.2 km] and it lies to the east northeast (ENE).<6>
  • The distance to Saint Peter's Basilica (The Vatican) is 4,557 miles [7,333.8 km] and it lies to the northeast (NE).<7>'

Footnotes ...

<1>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 Rock Creek to see Pete ... Rock 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 Fernleigh 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.
<2>Our distances are not driving distances, but are calculated as a 'point-to-point' distance. A straight line distance ignores obstructions like rivers, canyons, lakes, et cetera - it's truly a line drawn from Point A (ie- Fernleigh) to Point B. In other words: 'As the crow flies'.
<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 Fernleigh 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 Fernleigh. The point we use is located at these GPS coordinates - Latitude: 37.5424, Longitude: -77.5744       In this case, the coordinates for Fernleigh have been provided by the Geographic Names Information System (GNIS).
<5>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Jerusalem is 308.278 degrees.
<6>The calculated bearing (or angle) to Mecca is 303.674 degrees.
<7>The calculated bearing (or angle) to the Vatican is 305.443 degrees.