The highest point of a pass through the Southern Uplands, Beattock Summit reaches 315m (1033 feet) above sea level on the A74(M) motorway, between Ring Hill and Nap Hill, 2¾ miles (4.5 km) east southeast of Elvanfoot. The adjacent railway reaches 310m (1016 feet). The Summit is celebrated in W.H. Auden's 1935 poem, which includes the lines:
Pulling up Beattock, a steady climb:
The gradient's against her, but she's on time.
For a short time there was a private railway station here, although sidings remain in use. The remains of a Roman signal station were discovered to the east in 1976, part of a network built across Southern Scotland. This is associated with a Roman camp at Little Clyde.