Hill 60

Hill 60 is a small rise and memorial park in Zwarteleen, part of the municipality of Zillebeke, roughly 4.6 kilometres southeast of the centre of Ypres, Belgium. Sitting directly beside the railway line to Comines, it is one of the most evocative surviving sites of the former Ypres Salient from the First World War.

An artificial hill

Hill 60 isn't a natural feature at all. It was formed in the 1850s from spoil dumped during the excavation of the railway cutting between Ypres and Comines, a line that opened in March 1854. Before the war, locals knew it as Côte des Amants — Lover's Knoll — a name with none of the grim associations it would later acquire.

Why a modest rise mattered so much

Standing only a few metres above the surrounding countryside, Hill 60 doesn't look impressive at first glance. But in the almost perfectly flat terrain of Flanders, even that small elevation gave whoever held it a decisive advantage: from its top, German observers could look directly across the British lines and into the town of Ypres itself, making it one of the most fought-over observation points in the entire salient.

The fighting for Hill 60

The hill was first captured by the German 30th Division on 11 November 1914, in fighting against a mixed force of French and British infantry and cavalry during the First Battle of Ypres. The most dramatic turning point came on 17 April 1915, when the British carried out one of their earliest large-scale tunnelling operations of the war, detonating six mines beneath the hill and capturing it with relatively light casualties. The gain was short-lived: in early May the Germans retook Hill 60, this time using poison gas, making the struggle for this small rise one of the early instances of chemical warfare on the Western Front.

From private land to a preserved memorial

After the war the site passed through private hands. In 1920 Hill 60 was bought by Lieutenant-Colonel Cawston, who later sold a half share to a Mr. J. Calder. In 1930 Calder donated the site to the Imperial War Graves Commission — now the Commonwealth War Graves Commission — which has maintained it ever since. The ground still bears the scars of the fighting: shell craters, remnants of bunkers and dugouts, and memorials to the men who died there, making Hill 60 one of the few places in the Ypres Salient where the battlefield landscape survives in something close to its wartime state.

Frequently asked questions

Where exactly is Hill 60 located? In Zwarteleen, part of Zillebeke, about 4.6 km from the centre of Ypres, right next to the railway line to Comines.

Is Hill 60 a natural hill? No — it's an artificial mound created from spoil excavated during construction of the nearby railway line in the mid-19th century.

Who looks after the site today? Since 1930 it has been maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (formerly the Imperial War Graves Commission).

Is it worth visiting as part of a Ypres Salient tour? Yes — it's one of the few sites in the region where the visible traces of the 1914–1915 fighting, including mine craters and shell damage, have survived largely intact.