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Hameldon Hill is a Carboniferous sandstone hill with a summit elevation of 409 m, situated between the towns of Burnley and Accrington in Lancashire, England. It is listed as a "HuMP" or "Hundred Metre Prominence", its parent being Freeholds Top, a Marilyn near Bacup.

Other nearby settlements include Hapton and hamlets of Clowbridge and Dunnockshaw in Burnley district, Huncoat and Baxenden in Hyndburn, and Crawshawbooth, Goodshaw and Loveclough in Rossendale.

History
The name Hameldon is used for two others in the local area and possibly the same as Hambledon Hill in Dorset. The second element is likely Old English dūn meaning hill, the first is possibly from hamelian meaning to mutilate or maim. The precise meaning in these cases is uncertain, but possibly relates to their appearance.

Huncoat, on the northern slope, is one of the few places mentioned in the brief details of the Blackburnshire hundred in the Domesday Book, with King Edward holding two carucates of land here.

There may have been a deer park in neighbouring Hapton as early as 1330. Sir John Towneley obtained the first of two licenses to impark land there in 1496-1497. After the King's commissioners re-let the Forest of Rossendale to local farmers in 1507, Towneley in 1514 enlarged his deer park to embrace 1100 Lancashire acres (2000 acre) making it the second largest in historic Lancashire after that of the Earl of Derby at Knowsley. It covered much of the western part of the hill. By 1615 deer were no longer kept in the park, though it was not divided into the present-day farms until the early the 18th century.

Considered part of the Burnley Coalfield, Cupola Colliery mined coal from a number of shafts on the top of the hill, and was already established by the mid-1840s. The colliery was abandoned at the end of 1887 and the site subsequently cleared. The embankment created for its surface tramway can still be traced.

An number of smaller quarries at Hameldon Scouts had grown by 1886 into the Hameldon Quarries, when Henry Heys and Co took over the operation. It supplied large quantities of flagstones for the construction of mills in Burnley and Padiham. At that time tram roads connected the main site to another at Snipe Rake and to a facility at Park Gate Farm. These quarries ceased operation in 1909, but extensive remains still exist.

During World War II a network of Starfish site bombing decoys where constructed in the area designed to protect Accrington. Two of the sites are on Hameldon, one near Heights Farm, and the other on the western side overlooking the town. The Heights Farm site is protected as a Scheduled monument.

The Met Office north west England weather radar is situated on Hameldon Hill. Commissioned in 1975 this was the first unmanned installation of the 15 that form the national weather radar network. Nearby are a number of communication masts including one that broadcasts BBC Radio Lancashire.

Hameldon Hill Wind Farm, located on the northern side of the hill, became operational in 2007. Initially consisting of three turbines, a further three were added around 2012.

Geography
Hameldon has two summits, the highest point is known as Great Hameldon and attains 1343 ft. To the east the ground falls slightly before gradually rising to 1305 ft at a point known simply as Hameldon. To the south of Great Hameldon, the hill gives-out a spur of child peaks, terminating at Cribden Hill near Haslingden. At the eastern end are Black, Nutshaw, Burnt hills.

The underlying geology of the area consists of Lower Westphalian coal measures of the Carboniferous era, while the hills are formed of Carboniferous sandstones, ranging from millstone grits to finer grained stone such as the Dyneley Knott flags and the Dandy Mine Rock. The drift cover consists primarily of glacial till deposits, which cause poor-drainage soils, meaning the grassland is prone to reed growth.

On the northern slopes Castle Clough Brook runs north through a significant valley to join the River Calder, and both Shorten and Clough Brooks, further west, also drain the lower parts of the hill. On the eastern side New Barn Clough also flows north to join Habergham Brook, which along with Hapton Clough forms Green Brook at Spa Wood. In the centre a number of small streams combine to form Shaw Brook, which flows on the eastern side of Hapton and joins Green Brook just before its confluence with the Calder in Padiham.

On the western side Warmden Brook forms to the south of the Great Hameldon summit, feeding the Mitchell's House Reservoirs and becoming Broad Oak Water after it collects the stream from Tag Clough. Pleck Brook drains the area to the north, where several smaller reservoirs have also been created, and like Broad Oak Water joins the River Hyndburn in Accrington and ultimately the Calder. The southern slopes are primarily drained by three streams, one falls through Bank Clough in the east, and the others through Whin Hill and Great Cloughs in the west. All join Limy Water, a tributary of the River Irwell.

The Burnley Way passes over the hill, following the old road from Hapton to Haslingden as it climbs Hameldon, before descending to Clow Bridge.