McLennan Hills

About

McLennan Hills (also Te Aponga o Tainui) is one of the volcanoes in the Auckland volcanic field. It was a group of cratered scoria mounds up to 45 m high, before it was quarried away. A 1940 aerial photo (in Searle's book) shows a crater around 100 m wide, one around 50 m wide, and 2 or 3 smaller craters. McLennan Hills, alongside neighbouring Ōtāhuhu / Mount Richmond, were the sites of fortified pā in pre-European times, important due to their location between the Waitematā Harbour/Tāmaki River and the Manukau Harbour. Since the European settlement of Auckland, the scoria cone was quarried. The former quarry site was used for greenhouses before being redeveloped for housing.

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.