The key landscape characteristics of this section of Cornwall National Landscape is a distinctive upland landscape which is created from the underlying granite mass, the largest of several granite intrusions that penetrate the slate killas bedrock along the spine of Cornwall. The highest point of the moor is in the northwest at Brown Willy a peak of 420m. Across the valley, the slightly lower Roughtor hosts the remains of a 12th century medieval chapel, and together, they represent the highest points of land in Cornwall.