The most common and most likely answer to this crossword clue is the 5 plus 4 letter word NORTH POLE
I've seen this crossword clue in The Sunday Telegraph
N
O
R
T
H
P
O
L
E
More clues leading to the result NORTH POLE
- Where Santa is, and not the welcoming people, oddly
- From here, the only way is down
- A house here would have an all-round southern aspect!
- Name potholer lost in remote region
- Worksite busy at this time of year that has maximal latitude
- Santa’s home help – or not, possibly
- Old PM on European base used by 17 Down 10
- Direction followed by European to name a geographical feature
- Then, orlop was modified at this place
- Badly torn, left with hope to the top of Arctic
Buddy explains!
The straight part
We know that "Worksite busy at this time of year/that has maximal latitude" is the straight/definition part of the clue. The straight part is often a synonym or definition, in this case worksite busy at this time of year/that has maximal latitude = north pole.The cryptic/wordplay part
In cryptic crossword there's often an wordplay/cryptic part as well.This part involves a more complex hint, such as an anagram, homophone, hidden word, etc.
Sadly, We don't have an explanation for this specific crossword clue yet.