Kitstone Hill is about one and a half kilometres south-east of Hele, near Lower Trayne. The Ordnance Survey map of 1891 shows an Old Quarry just to the south-west of the summit. The place name kitstone probably originates in the quarry, since kit is an obsolete form of cut.

Kitstone Hill is called Kitson Hill on the first OS map of 1809; Transcription of 1839 Ilfracombe Tithe has Kitstone, pasture owned by Pincombe Charity, held by Henry Watts; Kitstone Hill on the OS map of 1891, where an Old Quarry is shown just to the south-west of the summit.

kit, obsolete, infinitive past tense and past participle of cut (SOED 1987 p1157)