How high is Floyd County?
Floyd County generally sits between 2,000 and 3,000 feet above sea level on the Blue Ridge Plateau, the county's comprehensive plan says. High points rise above that band: Wills Ridge reaches 3,380 feet, and Buffalo Mountain rises nearly 1,000 feet above the upland to a summit the county gives as 3,961 feet and DCR as 3,971. One parcel's elevation needs a point reading.
A plateau between 2,000 and 3,000 feet, and an edge that falls as much as 1,300
Floyd County's comprehensive plan gives the county's height as a band, not a single number: elevations in the county generally range from 2,000 to 3,000 feet. That band describes the upland of the Blue Ridge Plateau, the high ground the county sits on.
The band ends at the plateau's edge, where the ground can fall a long way. The plan says the change in elevation between the Blue Ridge and Piedmont provinces may be as much as 1,300 feet. Set side by side, the two figures are worth noticing: the plateau's whole general range, about 1,000 feet from low to high, is smaller than the drop where the Blue Ridge gives way to the Piedmont.
Height is also part of why the views carry, though a view from a particular homesite depends on more than height. Which way the ground faces, its aspect, decides what a site looks out on, and whether bare branches in the colder months change what a buyer sees on a visit is taken up in whether leaf season helps showings.
Floyd County's first call on a land question, and how its rules compare with the rest of the footprint, are on the six counties page.
Buffalo Mountain and Wills Ridge, measured against the upland they rise from
Two landforms stand above the plateau's general range, and the county plan names both.
| Feature | Published figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Plateau, general range | 2,000 to 3,000 feet | Floyd County comprehensive plan |
| Blue Ridge to Piedmont drop | Up to 1,300 feet | Floyd County comprehensive plan |
| Wills Ridge, highest point | 3,380 feet | Floyd County comprehensive plan |
| Buffalo Mountain, height above the upland | Nearly 1,000 feet | Floyd County comprehensive plan |
| Buffalo Mountain summit | 3,961 feet | Floyd County comprehensive plan |
| Buffalo Mountain summit | 3,971 feet | Virginia DCR, Buffalo Mountain Natural Area Preserve page |
The plan calls Buffalo Mountain a monadnock and says it rises nearly 1,000 feet above the surrounding upland. It calls Wills Ridge a lesser monadnock that reaches 3,380 feet at its highest point. For Buffalo Mountain's summit the published figures split: the county gives 3,961 feet, and the Department of Conservation and Recreation, on its page for the Buffalo Mountain Natural Area Preserve, gives 3,971. Neither is printed here as the settled number.
Compared with the band beneath them, Wills Ridge stands a few hundred feet above the top of the plateau's general range, and Buffalo Mountain's summit sits close to 1,000 feet above it. Higher ground is not automatically better building ground. A ridge line is the crest where two opposite slopes meet, and Virginia lets a locality regulate tall buildings on protected mountain ridges by ordinance, a local option with its own definitions. What a crest asks of a house, a drive and the runoff is covered in whether you can build on a ridge top.
The climb from the plateau to a summit also brings slope and grade into the picture. A drive has to reach the site, a house pad has to sit on it and water has to leave it, and each of those gets harder as the ground tilts, whatever the elevation figure says.
The county's range cannot give a parcel its number; a point reading can
The range answers the county question. It does not answer the parcel question, because a tract anywhere on a 1,000-foot band, or on the slopes of a monadnock above it, could sit at almost any figure the band allows.
A point elevation for one piece of ground comes from USGS elevation data or from a land surveyor. Place listings work differently from either. USGS's names database lists Floyd as a populated place in Floyd County, and the Census Gazetteer lists Floyd town, but a place listing marks a point on a map; it is not the height of the land around it, and it says nothing about a tract a few miles out.
A neighboring county publishes its height a different way. Carroll County's plan gives a maximum and a minimum rather than a general band: 3,570 feet at Fisher Peak and 1,100 feet near Cana. A county figure of either kind describes the county, not a tract. Published figures for a single town can disagree as well, as the page for Hillsville VA real estate shows.
Weighing Floyd County land on the plateau or below Buffalo Mountain?
Send the road or tax map number, and Lowell will read the ground: where it sits on the plateau, which way it faces and which office answers the slope questions for a house site. No cost, no obligation.
Got it. Thank you.
We'll be in touch shortly with an honest read.
Questions this raises
Why do sources give two summit elevations for Buffalo Mountain?
Two public bodies publish two figures. Floyd County's comprehensive plan gives the summit as 3,961 feet, and the Department of Conservation and Recreation's Buffalo Mountain Natural Area Preserve page gives 3,971 feet. A 10-foot gap is small against a mountain the county says rises nearly 1,000 feet above the surrounding upland, but any figure quoted should carry the name of the source it came from.
Where can I find the elevation of one parcel in Floyd County?
From a point reading, not the county's range. The comprehensive plan's 2,000 to 3,000 foot band describes the plateau as a whole, and a single tract can sit anywhere in it or on the slopes above it. USGS elevation data gives a point figure for a location, and a land surveyor can establish the elevation on the ground when a line or a structure depends on it.
Where this page's facts come from
Every rule, office and figure above traces to one of these. Rules change; check the office before you act on one.
- Comprehensive Plan (PDF) Floyd County, Virginia
- Buffalo Mountain Natural Area Preserve Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation
- Geographic Names Information System, populated place query for Floyd, Virginia U.S. Geological Survey
- 2023 Gazetteer, Virginia places U.S. Census Bureau
- 2024 Comprehensive Plan (PDF) Carroll County, Virginia
- Va. Code 15.2-2295.1, mountain ridge height restrictions Virginia General Assembly