
The mountains and hills of the
British Isles
The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...
are categorised into various lists based on different combinations of
elevation
The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...
,
prominence, and other criteria such as
isolation. These lists are used for
peak bagging
Peak bagging or hill bagging is an activity in which Hiking, hikers, climbing, climbers, and Mountaineering, mountaineers attempt to reach a collection of summits, published in the form of a list. This activity has been popularized around the world ...
, whereby
hillwalkers attempt to reach all the summits on a given list, the oldest being the 282
Munro
A Munro (; ) is defined as a mountain in Scotland with a height over , and which is on the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) official list of Munros; there is no explicit topographical prominence requirement. The best known Munro is Ben Nevi ...
s in Scotland, created in 1891.
A height above 2,000 ft, or more latterly 610 m, is considered necessary to be classified as a mountain – as opposed to a hill – in the British Isles. With the exception of Munros, all the lists require a prominence above . A prominence of between (e.g. some Nuttalls and Vandeleur-Lynams), does not meet the
International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation
The International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation, commonly known by its French name Union internationale des associations d'alpinisme (UIAA; ), was founded in August 1932 in Chamonix, France when 20 mountaineering associations met for ...
(UIAA) definition of an "independent peak", which is a threshold over . Most lists consider a prominence between as a "top" (e.g. many Hewitts and Simms). Marilyns, meanwhile, have a prominence above , with no additional height threshold. They range from small hills to the largest mountains. Prominences above , meet the P600 (the "Majors") classification, which is the UIAA international classification of a "major" mountain.
General concepts
Elevation

There is no worldwide consensus on the definition of mountain versus a hill, but in Great Britain and Ireland it is usually taken to be any summit with an
elevation
The elevation of a geographic location (geography), ''location'' is its height above or below a fixed reference point, most commonly a reference geoid, a mathematical model of the Earth's sea level as an equipotential gravitational equipotenti ...
of at least 2,000 feet (or 610 metres).
The UK government legally defines mountain land as that over for the purposes of
freedom of access. When
Calf Top in
Cumbria
Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...
was re-surveyed in 2016 and confirmed to be 6 millimetres above the 609.6 m threshold for a 2,000 ft peak, the
Ordnance Survey
The Ordnance Survey (OS) is the national mapping agency for Great Britain. The agency's name indicates its original military purpose (see Artillery, ordnance and surveying), which was to map Scotland in the wake of the Jacobite rising of ...
described Calf Top as England's "last mountain".
Regardless of the technical definition of a mountain, cultural norms also feature, with mountains in
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
being frequently referred to as hills irrespective of their height; examples being the
Cuillin
The Cuillin () is a range of mostly jagged rocky mountains on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. The main Cuillin ridge is also called the Black Cuillin to distinguish it from the Red Cuillin ('), which lie to the east of Glen Sligachan.R. Anderson & ...
Hills and the
Torridon Hills
The Torridon Hills surround Torridon village in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. The name is usually applied to the mountains to the north of Glen Torridon. They are among the most dramatic and spectacular peaks in the British Isles and ma ...
.
Prominence
All British Isles-wide mountain classifications, and most country-specific classifications, include an explicit minimum
topographical prominence
In topography, prominence or relative height (also referred to as autonomous height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contour line encircling ...
threshold (also called relative height, or drop, or re-ascent, between neighbouring peaks), which is typically .
The lowest prominence threshold is (e.g. Nuttalls, and Vandeleur-Lynams), but most classifications have a prominence threshold above . Many classifications use the term "Tops" for peaks with prominence between (e.g. Donald Tops), while other classifications ignore height and just focus purely on prominence (e.g. P600s, Marilyns, and HuMPs).
Prominence requirements feature in
International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation
The International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation, commonly known by its French name Union internationale des associations d'alpinisme (UIAA; ), was founded in August 1932 in Chamonix, France when 20 mountaineering associations met for ...
(UIAA) classifications of Himalayan mountains.
In 1994, the UIAA stated that for a "peak" to be independent (and not a sub-peak), it needed a prominence over , and a "mountain" had to have a prominence above .
Unlike the single measurement of elevation, prominence requires the measurement of all contours around the peak and is therefore subject to greater revision over time, and thus classification lists based on prominence are subject to change. Some definitions use an
imperial measurement for height, but a metric measurement for the topological prominence (e.g. Murdos, Hewitts, and Nuttalls.
Isolation
No British Isles classification uses a quantitative metric of
topographic isolation
The topographic isolation of a summit is the minimum geographical distance, horizontal distance to a point of equal elevation, representing a radius of dominance in which the peak is the highest point. It can be calculated for small hills and is ...
(such as the distance to the next point of equal height). However, the concept is embedded in the qualitative definition of a Scottish
Munro
A Munro (; ) is defined as a mountain in Scotland with a height over , and which is on the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) official list of Munros; there is no explicit topographical prominence requirement. The best known Munro is Ben Nevi ...
, and the
Scottish Mountaineering Club requirement of "sufficient separation".
''Database of British and Irish Hills''
The ''Database of British and Irish Hills'' (''DoBIH'') was created in 2001 "with the intention of providing a comprehensive, up-to-date resource for British hillwalkers".
It is maintained by a team of seven editors, and is described by the
Long Distance Walkers Association
The Long Distance Walkers Association (LDWA) is a British not for profit, volunteer-led association whose aim is "to further the common interests of those who enjoy Long Distance Walking" in rural, urban, mountainous, coastal and moorland areas. ...
as "now the most reliable online source for all Registers" (i.e. all lists of summits attained).
The ''DoBIH'' has been used as a source by books, hillwalking websites and smartphone apps, including Mark Jackson's 2010 book on the HuMPS, titled ''More Relative Hills of Britain''.
The ''DoBIH'' is available as a downloadable database,
or in an online version under the title ''Hill Bagging''.
the database included 20,742 hills, including all
Marilyns,
HuMP
Hump, The Hump, or humping may refer to:
Biological
* Hump, the fleshy mass on the back of a camel containing its fat reservoir
** For other examples, see the list of animals with humps
* Humping, slang for sexual intercourse
** Dry humping, a fo ...
s,
TuMPs,
Simms,
Dodds,
Munro
A Munro (; ) is defined as a mountain in Scotland with a height over , and which is on the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) official list of Munros; there is no explicit topographical prominence requirement. The best known Munro is Ben Nevi ...
s and Tops,
Corbetts and Tops,
Grahams and Tops,
Donald
Donald is a Scottish masculine given name. It is derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinter ...
s and Tops,
Furths
This is a list of Furth mountains in Britain and Ireland by height. Lists of mountains and hills in the British Isles#Furths, Furths are defined as mountains that meet the Lists of mountains and hills in the British Isles#Munros, classification c ...
,
Hewitts,
Nuttalls,
Buxton & Lewis,
Bridge
A bridge is a structure built to Span (engineering), span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or railway) without blocking the path underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, whi ...
s,
Yeamans,
Clems,
Murdos,
Deweys,
Donald Deweys,
Highland Fives,
Wainwrights
Wainwrights are the 214 English peaks (known locally as '' fells'') described in Alfred Wainwright's seven-volume '' Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells'' (1955–66). They all lie within the boundary of the Lake District National Park in Cu ...
,
Birketts,
Synges,
Fellrangers,
Ethels,
County top
The mountains and hills of the British Isles are categorised into various lists based on different combinations of elevation, prominence, and other criteria such as isolation. These lists are used for peak bagging, whereby hillwalkers attempt ...
s, SIBs (Significant Islands of Britain),
Dillons,
Arderin
Arderin () is a mountain on the border between counties Laois and Offaly in Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is ...
s,
Vandeleur-Lynams,
Carns and
Binnions.
Since 2012, the ''DoBIH'' has had a data-sharing agreement with the Irish online database of mountains and hills known as ''
MountainViews
In these lists of mountains in Ireland, those within Northern Ireland, or on the Republic of Ireland – United Kingdom border, are marked with an asterisk, while the rest are within the Republic of Ireland. Where mountains are ranked by height ...
''.
British Isles
P600 (the "Majors")
The P600s are mountains in the British Isles that have a
topographical prominence
In topography, prominence or relative height (also referred to as autonomous height, and shoulder drop in US English, and drop in British English) measures the height of a mountain or hill's summit relative to the lowest contour line encircling ...
of at least , regardless of absolute height or other merits. The list initially used a 2,000 ft metric (or 609.6 m, the P610s) but this was subsequently reduced to 600 m and the list became known as the "Majors". The list is authored by Mark Trengove. The definitive version is published on his Europeak website
and in the Database of British and Irish Hills.
It is one of the shortest of the classification lists of mountains in the British Isles as it has testing threshold criteria.
In 2006, 93 P600s were identified in Great Britain: 82 in Scotland, four in England and seven in Wales. These, together with one in Northern Ireland, one on the Isle of Man, and 24 in the Republic of Ireland, brought the total number of P600 mountains in the British Isles to 119.
Later, the Welsh peak
Moel Siabod's prominence was remapped at and the list of P600s expanded to 120. In 2018 a GNSS survey gave a prominence of 599.9m. Although the margin of error means the result is not conclusive, it was accepted by Mark Trengove, who was present on the survey, bringing the total back to 119. More recently available
LIDAR
Lidar (, also LIDAR, an acronym of "light detection and ranging" or "laser imaging, detection, and ranging") is a method for determining ranging, ranges by targeting an object or a surface with a laser and measuring the time for the reflected li ...
data for the col would give a prominence of 599.7m. In February 2020 a GNSS survey of Beinn Odhar Bheag in conjunction with OS trig point data for Rois-Bheinn found the former to be 1 metre higher. Accordingly, Beinn Odhar Bheag has replaced Rois-bheinn in the P600 list.
The British Isles' P600s contain 54 of the 282 Scottish Munros, and 10 of the 34 Non-Scottish Munros called ; these 64 British Isles' mountains meet the designation of being above in height, and in prominence.
P600 is an international mountain classification criterion, along with P1500 (or
Ultras), for a prominence above .
The online version of ''The Database of British and Irish Hills'' also offers a P500 mountain classification: summits with a prominence above .
Marilyns
The Marilyns are mountains and hills in the British Isles that have a topographical prominence above , regardless of absolute height or other merits.
there were 1,552 Marilyns in Great Britain and associated islands: 1,219 in Scotland, 175 in England, and 158 in Wales (
Black Mountain, on the
England–Wales border
The England–Wales border, sometimes referred to as the Wales–England border or the Anglo-Welsh border, runs for from the Dee estuary, in the north, to the Severn estuary in the south, separating England and Wales.
It has followed broadly ...
, is counted as being in Wales).
There are 454 Marilyns in Ireland (389 in the Republic of Ireland and 66 in Northern Ireland), and five on the
Isle of Man
The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...
, bringing the total for the British Isles to 2,011.
The list was first compiled in 1992 by Alan Dawson.
The name was coined as a humorous contrast to the designation ''Munro'', which is homophonous with
'' Monroe''">arilynMonroe''.
The Marilyns are one of the most popular lists for peak baggers, and because of the lack of any height threshold, the classification includes a wide range of hills and mountains, and some
sea stacks
A stack or sea stack is a geological landform consisting of a steep and often vertical column or columns of rock in the sea near a coast, formed by wave erosion. Stacks are formed over time by wind and water, processes of coastal geomorphology. ...
(pictured right).
HuMPs
The Marilyns were expanded in 2007 by the HuMPs (Hundred and upwards Metre Prominence), which reduced the prominence requirement to ; all British Isles Marilyns are British Isles HuMPS (but not vice versa).
Though he did not use the term HuMP, Eric Yeaman's ''Handbook of the Scottish Hills'' (1989) is considered an early source as it included lists of hills with a prominence above 100 m.
The name and first formal British Isles list was compiled by Mark Jackson from a number of sources and published online in 2010 in ''More Relative Hills of Britain''.
As of April 2020, there were 2,984 HuMPs in the British Isles: 2,167 in Scotland, 833 in Ireland, 441 in England, 368 in Wales and 11 in the Channel Islands.
Jackson maintains a "Hall of Fame" for climbers who have summited 1,200 HuMPs.
Simms
A Simm is a mountain in the British Isles that is over high and has a prominence of at least .
The word comes from ''Six-hundred Metre Mountain''.
As of April 2020, there are 2,755 recorded Simms in the British Isles, including 2,190 Scottish Simms, 192 English Simms, 149 Welsh Simms, one Isle of Man Simm, and 223 Irish Simms.
By definition all Simms are also
TuMP
The mountains and hills of the British Isles are categorised into various lists based on different combinations of elevation, prominence, and other criteria such as isolation. These lists are used for peak bagging, whereby hillwalkers attempt ...
s (see below) and most, if not all, are mountains, depending on whether 600 metres or 2,000 feet (610 m) (e.g. a ), is used as the criterion. The idea of the Simm was introduced by Alan Dawson in June 2010, who noted that a Simm was the "broadest credible definition of what could be objectively conceived as a mountain in Britain".
, 6,414 people had registered themselves as having climbed all 282 Scottish Munros, by March 2020 11 people had registered climbing all 1,557 Marilyns of Great Britain, while by August 2021 only four people had registered completion of the 2,531 Simms of Great Britain, three of whom have also declared completion of all 2,755 Simms of the British Isles. July 2020 saw one summit promoted and one deleted, and by 24/07/2020 all of the three initial completers had "topped up".
Dodds
The Dodds comprises hills between 500 and 600 metres in height, with a
prominence above . The list was conceived in December 2014 in an article in Marhofn magazine as a unification of those parts of the
Deweys,
Donald Deweys and
Highland Fives below 600m to create a metric list that can be viewed as a downwards extension of the
Simms (British hills over 600m high). The acronym comes from "Donald Deweys, Deweys and Scotland". A Subdodd is a hill which just fails (by up to 10m) to qualify on the drop rule, i.e. between 500 m and 600 m with 20–29 m drop.
The list was first published by the Database of British and Irish Hills, who maintain the list, in December 2017 after it had been recognised by the Relative Hills Society. The geographical coverage was originally confined to Britain, but was extended to the Isle of Man in February 2020 and to Ireland in September 2020.
TuMPs
In 2010, Mark Jackson further expanded the HuMPS and compiled the TuMPs (Thirty and upwards Metre Prominence), a list of all hills in Britain having a prominence above .
By definition, all Murdos, Corbett Tops, Graham Tops, Hewitts and Deweys are also TuMPs. As of April 2020, there are 17,127 TuMPs;
approximately half of that number that did not appear in previously researched lists were researched by Mark Jackson between 2006 and 2009. Since 2012 the list has been published and maintained by the editors of ''The Database of British and Irish Hills''.
[
]
Scotland only
Munros
The Munros are mountains in Scotland with elevation of over . The list was originally compiled by Sir Hugh Munro in 1891, and is modified from time to time by the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC), an example being the delisting in December 2020 of Stob Coire na Cloiche
Stob may refer to:
People
* Verity Stob (since 1988), pseudonymous author of IT satirical articles
* Ralph Stob (1894–1965), U.S. academic, president (1933–1939) of Calvin College
* Henry J. Stob (1908–1996), U.S. academic, namesake of the ...
as a Munro top, now recognised as being of only . Unlike most other lists, the Munros do not depend on a rigid prominence criterion for entry; instead, those that satisfy the subjective measure of being a "separate mountain" are regarded as ''Munros'', while subsidiary summits are given the status of Munro Tops. There are 282 Munros, and 226 further Munro Tops, totalling 508 summits, all of them in the Scottish Highlands
The Highlands (; , ) is a historical region of Scotland. Culturally, the Highlands and the Scottish Lowlands, Lowlands diverged from the Late Middle Ages into the modern period, when Scots language, Lowland Scots language replaced Scottish Gae ...
.
Real Munro is used to describe Munros with a prominence of over (the Marilyn prominence threshold), and there are 202 Real Munros in Scotland. Of the 282 Scottish Munros, 54 meet the prominence threshold to be classified as P600s.[
Metric Munro is used to describe the Munros with an elevation above and a prominence either over (of which there are 88), or a prominence over (of which there are 130), but the term is not in widespread use.]
Murdos
The Murdos apply a quantitive criterion to the Munro
A Munro (; ) is defined as a mountain in Scotland with a height over , and which is on the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) official list of Munros; there is no explicit topographical prominence requirement. The best known Munro is Ben Nevi ...
s and their associated tops, and comprise all of the summits in Scotland over with a prominence above . There are 442 Murdos, compared to 282 Munros (or 508 Munros plus Munro Tops); one of the Munros does not qualify as a Murdo (Maoile Lunndaidh
Maoile Lunndaidh or Maoil Lunndaidh is a Scottish mountain situated 13 km south of Achnasheen in the Ross and Cromarty district of the Highland council area. It is part of the high ground between Loch Monar and Gleann Fhiodhaig.
Overv ...
), and 66 of the Munro Tops do not qualify as Murdos.
Alan Dawson first compiled the list in 1995 as an objective and quantitative alternative to the more qualitative SMC definition of a Munro. Dawson's threshold is in line with the 1994 UIAA declaration that an "independent peak" has to have a prominence of over . Unlike all other Scottish mountain and hill classifications, the SMC does not maintain an official list of Murdos. All Murdos are either SMC Munros or SMC Munro Tops.
Corbetts
The Corbetts are peaks in Scotland that are between high with a prominence of at least . The list was compiled in the 1920s by John Rooke Corbett, a Bristol-based climber and SMC member, and was published posthumously after his sister passed it to the SMC. As of April 2020, there were 222 Corbetts. Climbers who climb all of the Corbetts are called ''Corbetteers'', the first being Corbett himself who completed them in 1943.
A list of Corbett Tops, covering mountains in Scotland between in height and with between of prominence, was published by Alan Dawson in 2001. There are 455 Corbett Tops, and thus 677 Corbetts and Corbett Tops in total.
Grahams
The Grahams are hills in Scotland between high, with a drop of at least 150 metres all round.[
] A list of British hills with over 150 metres prominence was first published in 1992 by Alan Dawson in ''The Relative Hills of Britain'', with the subset from 2000 to 2500 feet referred to as Elsies (LCs, short for Lesser Corbetts). The Elsies were later named Grahams after the late Fiona Torbet (''née'' Graham) who published her own list of Scottish hills from 2000 to 2500 feet six months later. Dawson continues to maintain the list, which as of December 2022 comprised 231 hills from 600 to 762 metres high. Two of the original Grahams no longer qualify: Cnoc Coinnich was found to be above the height threshold, while Stob na Boine Druim-fhinn was found to have less than 150 metres prominence.
In 2004, Dawson published a list of Graham Tops covering every summit in Scotland between high with over 30 metres of prominence. This list has since been superseded by the Simms, which include all mountains in Britain over 600 metres high with at least 30 metres prominence.
Donalds
The Donalds are mountains in the Scottish Lowlands
The Lowlands ( or , ; , ) is a cultural and historical region of Scotland.
The region is characterised by its relatively flat or gently rolling terrain as opposed to the mountainous landscapes of the Scottish Highlands. This area includes ci ...
over , amongst other criteria. The list was compiled by Percy Donald in 1935, and is maintained by the SMC. The classification is determined by a complicated formula which also contains qualitative elements around "sufficient topographical interest". The formula necessitates splitting Donalds into Donald Hills and Donald Tops; in general, Donald Hills have a prominence over , but the prominence of Donald Tops can range from . Donalds can be Corbetts or Grahams and the SMC state that: "Percy Donald's original Tables are seen as a complete entity, unlike the Munros, Corbetts and Grahams." As of April 2020, there are 140 Donalds, comprising 89 Donald Hills and 51 Donald Tops.
Given the complexity of the Donald classification, the simpler New Donalds was introduced by Alan Dawson in his 1995 book ''The Grahams and the New Donalds'', with an explicit prominence threshold of ; there are 118 New Donalds, and while all Donald Hills are New Donalds, 22 Donald Tops are not.
Hughs
The Hughs (Hills Under Graham Height) are a list compiled by Andrew Dempster, who published ''The Hughs: Scotland's Best Wee Hills Under 2,000 Feet: Volume 1: The Mainland'' in 2015. Dempster describes them as "hills with attitude, not altitude" and says "the three key words are prominence, position, panorama". He lists 100 summits in the mainland volume, and plans a second volume to list 100 summits on the islands. they are not listed in the DBIH but have attracted attention from peakbaggers.
Outside Scotland
Furths
Furths are mountains in Great Britain and Ireland that are furth of (i.e. "outside") Scotland, and which would otherwise qualify as Scottish Munros or Munro Tops. They are sometimes referred to as the Irish, the English or the Welsh Munros. There are 34 furths; 15 in Wales, 13 in Ireland and six in England. The highest is Snowdon
Snowdon (), or (), is a mountain in Snowdonia in North Wales. It has an elevation of above sea level, which makes it both the highest mountain in Wales and the highest in the British Isles south of the Scottish Highlands. Snowdon i ...
. Of these 34 SMC identified Furths, 33 have a prominence above (e.g. the Murdo Furths), 14 have a prominence above (e.g. the Real Munro Furths), and 10 have a prominence above (e.g. the P600 Furths).
The Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) maintains the list of Furths and records claims of Munroists who go on to complete the Furths (called "Furthists").
Hewitts
The Hewitts, named after the initials of their definition, are "hills in England, Wales and Ireland over two thousand" feet (), with a relative height of at least . The English and Welsh, lists were compiled and are maintained by Alan Dawson. Dawson originally called them "Sweats" in his book, from "Summits – Wales and England Above Two thousand". the Irish component was compiled and maintained by Clem Clements up to his death in 2012; it is now maintained by the DoBIH along with his list of Irish Marilyns. The list is a subset of the Nuttall classification (see below), and excludes the 125 least prominent Nuttalls from the list.
, the ''DoBIH'' listed 525 Hewitts, 209 in Ireland, 180 in England and 136 in Wales. Since their publication in 1997, Birks Fell and Calf Top in England and Mynydd Graig Goch have been added and Black Mountain deemed to be in Wales only. The combination of Murdos, Corbett Tops and Graham Tops comprise the Scottish equivalent of the Hewitts, but their author Alan Dawson regards those classifications as obsolete. Hewitts are a sub-class of the newer 2010 British Isles classification, the , or "metric Hewitt", with a height threshold, and a prominence threshold. Dawson still maintains a list of Hewitts.
Nuttalls
The Nuttalls are mountains in England and Wales only that are over , and with a relative height of at least . There were 444 Nuttalls in the original list (254 in England and 190 in Wales), compiled by John and Anne Nuttall and published in 1989–90 in two volumes, ''The Mountains of England & Wales''. After updates, the total of Nuttalls reached 446 in August 2018 with the inclusion of Miller Moss.
By including high points that rise by as little as above their surroundings, the list of Nuttalls is sometimes criticised for including too many insignificant minor tops; the Hewitts (see above) are one attempt to avoid this. Some Nuttalls would not be considered peaks or mountains under UIAA definitions.
With the exception of Pillar Rock, a rocky outcrop on Pillar
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...
in the Lake District
The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...
, the peaks of all of the Nuttalls can be reached without resort to rock climbing
Rock climbing is a climbing sports discipline that involves ascending climbing routes, routes consisting of natural rock in an outdoor environment, or on artificial resin climbing walls in a mostly indoor environment. Routes are documented in c ...
. , 302 people are recorded as having completed the list, though this includes some who did not climb Pillar Rock, which the authors permit. They have also announced that Tinside Rigg and Long Fell (added to the list in 2016) need not be summited as they are in a restricted area of Warcop Artillery Range.
England only
Wainwrights
The Wainwrights are mountains or hills (locally known as fells
A fell (from Old Norse ''fell'', ''fjall'', "mountain"Falk and Torp (2006:161).) is a high and barren landscape feature, such as a mountain or moor-covered hill. The term is most often employed in Fennoscandia, Iceland, the Isle of Man, parts ...
) in the English Lake District National Park
The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...
that have a chapter in one of Alfred Wainwright
Alfred Wainwright Order of the British Empire, MBE (17 January 1907 – 20 January 1991), who preferred to be known as A. Wainwright or A.W., was a British fellwalking, fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume ''Pictorial ...
's '' Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells''. There are 214 Wainwrights in the seven guides, and there are no qualifications for inclusion other than Wainwright's choice, although in the introduction he stated that he would include all summits over 1,000-feet in height, with a prominence above 50 feet. An exception was made for Castle Crag in Borrowdale, at ; Wainwright stated that although it was below his 1,000-feet criterion, it was a perfect mountain in miniature and demanded inclusion. A further 116 summits were included in the supplementary guide, '' The Outlying Fells of Lakeland'', and are known as the Wainwright Outlying Fells.
Birketts
The Birketts are all the tops over within the boundaries of the Lake District National Park
The Lake District, also known as ''the Lakes'' or ''Lakeland'', is a mountainous region and National parks of the United Kingdom, national park in Cumbria, North West England. It is famous for its landscape, including its lakes, coast, and mou ...
. Height and location, but not prominence, are the criteria. The list was devised by Bill Birkett as the basis for his 1994 book ''Complete Lakeland Fells''. There are 541 of these tops, and they include 209 of the 214 Wainwrights, and 59 of the 116 Wainwright Outlying Fells.
The five Wainwrights that are not Birketts are Armboth Fell, Baystones, Castle Crag (which, at , is Wainwright's only sub-1,000 ft summit), Graystones
Graystones is a fell in the England, English Lake District. It lies in the North Western Fells region and is one of the peaks on the ridge which encircles the valley of Aiken Beck.
Name
According to Alfred Wainwright the name Graystones prop ...
and Mungrisdale Common
Mungrisdale Common, pronounced ''mun-grize-dl'', with emphasis on ''grize'', is a fell in the English Lake District. Although Alfred Wainwright listed it as one of the 214 featured hills in his influential ''Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fel ...
; Birketts are listed in the .[
]
Synges
''The Database of British and Irish Hills'' recognises as Synges the 647 Lake District summits in Tim Synge's ''The Lakeland Summits: Survey of the Fells of the Lake District National Park'' (1995). Two hills have been added to the original list: High Rigg in 2017 and Oakhowe Crag in 2020. The current list is available on the Hill Bagging website. There is no height or prominence threshold.
Ethels
The Ethels are 95 hills in the Peak District
The Peak District is an Highland, upland area in central-northern England, at the southern end of the Pennines. Mostly in Derbyshire, it extends into Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire. It is subdivi ...
, mostly over 400 m (1,300 ft) above sea level but including various prominent lower hills. Most of the Ethels lie within the Peak District National Park Peak or The Peak may refer to:
Basic meanings Geology
* Mountain peak
** Pyramidal peak, a mountaintop that has been sculpted by erosion to form a point Mathematics
* Peak hour or rush hour, in traffic congestion
* Peak (geometry), an (''n''-3)-d ...
, but others lie outside its borders. The Ethels are a tribute to Ethel Haythornthwaite who pioneered the establishment of the Peak District as Britain's first national park
A national park is a nature park designated for conservation (ethic), conservation purposes because of unparalleled national natural, historic, or cultural significance. It is an area of natural, semi-natural, or developed land that is protecte ...
in 1951.
The Peak District and South Yorkshire branch of the CPRE countryside charity announced The Ethels in May 2021. The Ethels were devised in early 2021 by CPRE volunteer Doug Colton.
Ireland only
Vandeleur-Lynams
A Vandeleur-Lynam is the Irish equivalent of a Nuttall, except that the definition is fully metric with a height requirement of , and a prominence requirement of . As with the Nuttalls, Vandeleur-Lynams do not meet the UIAA requirements for a "peak" or for a "mountain". In 1952, Irish climber Joss Lynam made a list of 2,000 ft Irish summits with a 50 ft drop aided by Rev CRP Vandeleur. Lynam updated his list, and published it in the book, ''Mountaineering in Ireland'' (1976) by Claude Wall, and later made a metric version published in 1997. There are 274 Vandeleur-Lynams in Ireland.
Arderins
The Arderins are mountains in Ireland above , with a prominence over . The list was drawn up in 2002 by the Irish ''MountainViews'' publisher Simon Stewart from an early listing of the Myrddyn Deweys with hills from the Vandeleur-Lynams which meet the higher prominence criterion. The name Arderins was first used in 2009, and comes from the hill Arderin
Arderin () is a mountain on the border between counties Laois and Offaly in Ireland
Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is ...
, which is the County Top for County Laois
County Laois ( ; ) is a county in Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and in the province of Leinster. It was known as Queen's County from 1556 to 1922. The modern county takes its name from Loígis, a medieval kingdom. Hist ...
and County Offaly
County Offaly (; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is part of the Eastern and Midland Region and the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster. It is named after the Ancient Ireland, ancient Kingdom of Uí ...
in Ireland, and translates as "Height of Ireland". The Arderins were published in the 2013 book, "A Guide to Ireland's Mountain Summits: The Vandeleur-Lynams & the Arderins". According to the MountainViews Online Database, Ireland has 407 Arderins, of which 207 are over 2,000 ft and classed as Hewitts, and the 222 are over 600 m and classed as Simms.
In addition, Mountainviews uses the term ''Arderin Begs'' for the additional class of peaks over in height, and with a prominence between ; in 2018, Ireland had 124 Arderin Begs.
MountainViews
In 2013, Simon Stewart, publisher of Irish mountain database ''MountainViews Online Database
In these lists of mountains in Ireland, those within Northern Ireland, or on the Republic of Ireland – United Kingdom border, are marked with an asterisk, while the rest are within the Republic of Ireland. Where mountains are ranked by height ...
'', published ''A Guide to Ireland's Mountain Summits: The Vandeleur-Lynams & the Arderins''. In the book, Stewart proposed a new classification of an Irish mountain, being one with a height above , and a prominence over . Stewart identified 222 Irish peaks as meeting his new classification. MountainViews used this definition to create the list of ''100 Highest Mountains in Ireland'', which has also become popular in Ireland.
Carns
MountainViews and Database of British and Irish Hills recognise a list of 337 summits as Carns, having height above and below , and with a prominence over .
Binnions
MountainViews and Database of British and Irish Hills recognise a list of 484 summits as Binnions, having a prominence of at least and a height below . Binnion Hill is a peak of in height in County Donegal
County Donegal ( ; ) is a Counties of Ireland, county of the Republic of Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Ulster and is the northernmost county of Ireland. The county mostly borders Northern Ireland, sharing only a small b ...
, site of the Battle of Binnion Hill, and possibly the source of the name.
Wales only
The ''Mud and Routes'' website includes a list of WASHIS: Welsh And Six Hundred In Stature, 118 summits which are over 600 m (1,969 ft) and have a prominence of at least , with the comment that "Wales doesn't have a list of summits in its own right", but the term does not appear to have been adopted elsewhere.
County tops
Climbing to the highest point of each county is a form of peak bagging
Peak bagging or hill bagging is an activity in which Hiking, hikers, climbing, climbers, and Mountaineering, mountaineers attempt to reach a collection of summits, published in the form of a list. This activity has been popularized around the world ...
, dating back to the 1920s when John Rooke Corbett was attempting to visit all British County Tops.
* List of counties of England and Wales in 1964 by highest point
List of counties of England and Wales in 1964 by highest point. In 1964 they are more or less the ancient counties, with the addition of the County of London and a number of historic divisions in place as administrative counties: Cambridgeshire int ...
* List of ceremonial counties of England by highest point
* List of Welsh principal areas by highest point
This is a list of the Subdivisions of Wales, principal areas of Wales, ordered by their highest points.
Notes
The highest points in the principal areas of both Torfaen and Rhondda Cynon Taf are not summits but locations high on hills, the summit ...
* List of Scottish counties by highest point
* List of Scottish council areas by highest point
A list is a Set (mathematics), set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of t ...
* List of Irish counties by highest point
This is a list of Irish counties by their highest point. These are most commonly known as county high points but are also sometimes referred to as county tops and county peaks. There are 32 counties in Ireland but in the case of 10 counties, ma ...
Other active lists
Deweys
The Deweys and related categories extend the Hewitts of England, Wales and Ireland to 500 metres, and include summits in Scotland, where there are no Hewitts.
* The Deweys are peaks in England, Wales and the Isle and Man between 500 metres and in height, with a prominence of at least , which were listed by Michael Dewey in 1995. Deweys extend the England and Wales Hewitts below 2,000 feet, but above 500 metres. There are 426 Deweys identified: 241 in Wales, 180 in England, and five in the Isle of Man.
* The Donald Deweys are peaks in the Scottish lowlands (similar to the Donald classification), between 500 metres and in height, with a prominence of at least , which were listed by David Purchase in 2001. Donald Deweys are the Scottish lowland equivalent of Deweys. There are 248 Donald Deweys.
* The Highland Fives are peaks in the Scottish highlands, originally between 500 metres and metres in height, with a prominence of at least . Thus they were the Scottish Highland equivalent of the Deweys. The first listing was compiled by Rob Woodall in 2003 using contributions from Tony Payne and others. The list was adopted by The Database of British and Irish Hills in 2011, who overhauled the list and with Woodall's agreement took over its maintenance and named it the Highland Fives. The upper height limit was reduced from 2000ft (609.6m) to 600 metres in December 2022 in tandem with Alan Dawson's reduction of the lower height limit of the Graham Tops to 600 metres. There are 713 Highland Fives.
* The Myrddyn Deweys are peaks in Ireland, between 500 metres and in height with a prominence above , listed by Michael Dewey and Myrddyn Phillips and made freely available to the Mountaineering Council of Ireland in 2000. Myrddyn Deweys are the Irish equivalent of Deweys. The data was overhauled in 2011 but has not been further revised to take account of changes in height and prominence resulting from surveys by MountainViews and new mapping. There are 200 Myrddyn Deweys.
Hardys
A Hardy
Hardy may refer to:
People
* Hardy (surname)
* Hardy (given name)
* Hardy (singer), American singer-songwriter Places Antarctica
* Mount Hardy, Enderby Land
* Hardy Cove, Greenwich Island
* Hardy Rocks, Biscoe Islands
Australia
* Hardy, ...
is the highest point of a UK, Manx or Channel Island hill range, a UK island over or 4.05 km2) or a UK top-tier administrative area (counties and unitary authorities). There are now 347 Hardys with the recent addition (up to July 2016) of five low lying English coastal estuary islands: 61 hill ranges, 96 islands and 190 administrative areas. 183 are in England, 31 in Wales, 107 in Scotland and 26 in Northern Ireland. The list was first compiled in the 1990s by Ian Hardy.''Hardys Hill List and GPS Waypoints''
at www.haroldstreet.org.uk. Retrieved 6 Jan 2017.
Non-active lists
Bridges
''The Database of British and Irish Hills'' recognises as Bridges the 407 summits in George Bridge's ''Mountains of England and Wales: Tables of the 2000ft Summits'' (1973).[ ''Not titled, but linked from "Bridges" in HillBagging']
"Other lists" page
' Bridge used a prominence threshold of , but was hampered by the accuracy of the maps available at the time, and the list was effectively replaced by the Nuttalls, which uses the metric equivalent of 15 m49 ft.
Buxton & Lewis
''The Database of British and Irish Hills'' recognises as Buxton & Lewis the 422 summits in ''Mountain Summits of England and Wales'' (1986) by Chris Buxton and Gwyn Lewis.[ ''Linked from "Buxton-Lewis" in Hill Bagging']
"Other lists" page
' Buxton and Lewis used a prominence threshold of two contour rings on the OS 1:50,000 map, and the number of hills is similar to the Nuttalls and the Bridges.
Clems
''The Database of British and Irish Hills'' recognises as Clems the 1,284 summits in the list ''Yeamans of England & Wales'' compiled in 1993 by E. D. Clements, known as Clem, by applying Yeaman's criterion of "an eminence which has an ascent of 100m all round, or, failing that, is at least 5 km (walking distance) from any higher point on neighbouring hills" to summits in England, Wales and the Isle of Man, together with 14 summits which he added later. They were named Clems after his death, and formed the basis of the later list of HuMPs.
Fellrangers
''The Database of British and Irish Hills'' recognises as Fellrangers the 230 (originally 227) Lake District summits in Mark Richards' ''Fellranger'' series of eight guidebooks (originally published by HarperCollins, starting with ''Central Fells'' ; reprinted by Cicerone Press
Cicerone Press is an English publisher, founded in 1969, specialising in guidebooks for walkers, climbers, trekkers and cyclists.
The company's first publication was a climbing guide to the English Lake District, and over the past 50 years the ...
; 2013 boxed set ; new editions 2019–2021), A list is available on the HillBagging website. There is no height or prominence threshold. The original list included 18 fells not included in the 214 Wainwrights, some of which are listed among Wainwright's "Outlying fells". The 2019-2021 edition includes a further three summits to bring the total to 230, the additions being Winterscleugh (Bretherdale Common), Whinfell Beacon and Grayrigg Forest, all in the ''Mardale and the far east'' volume.
Yeamans
''The Database of British and Irish Hills'' recognises as Yeamans (sometimes spelled Yeomans) the 2,441 summits identified by Eric Yeaman in his ''Handbook of the Scottish Hills'' (1989, Arbroath:Wafaida ) with later changes. His criterion was "an eminence which has an ascent of 100 m all round, or, failing that, is at least 5 km (walking distance) from any higher point on neighbouring hills". Yeamans produced an update in 2001, and the list was used as the basis by those developing the later list of HuMPs, but the category is now considered to be "historic" and has not been updated since 2001.
Regional lists
The following are lists of hills for a given region in the British Isles:
England:
* List of hills of Cornwall
* List of hills of Dorset
* List of hills of Gloucestershire
* List of hills of Hampshire
* List of hills of Wiltshire
* List of hills in the Peak District
See also
* List of mountain lists
*Lists of mountains
A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
*List of mountains of the British Isles by height
This article provides access to lists of mountains in Britain and Ireland by height and by prominence. (See Lists of mountains below.) Height and prominence are the most important metrics for the classifications of mountains by the UIAA; with ...
Notes
References
Further reading
*
*
External links
Hill Bagging UK & Ireland
the searchable interface for the ''DoBIH''
the searchable database for the MountainViews
The Relative Hills of Britain
a website dedicated to mountain and hill classification
County tops
on ''Wikishire''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hill and Mountain Lists In The British Isles
Mountains and hills of the United Kingdom
Mountains and hills of Ireland