A gill or ghyll is a

ravine A ravine is a landform that is narrower than a canyon and is often the product of streambank erosion.Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and t ...

. Examples include Dufton Ghyll Wood,

Dungeon Ghyll Great Langdale is a valley in the Lake District National Park in North West England, the epithet Great distinguishing it from the neighbouring valley of Little Langdale. Langdale is also the name of a valley in the Howgill Fells, elsewhere ...

, Troller's Gill and Trow Ghyll. As a related usage,

Gaping Gill Gaping Gill (also known as Gaping Ghyll) is a natural cave in North Yorkshire, England. It is one of the unmistakable landmarks on the southern slopes of Ingleborough – a deep pothole with the stream Fell Beck flowing into it. After falli ...

is the name of a cave, not the associated stream, and Cowgill,

Masongill Masongill is a small community on the edge of the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. The village, in the Yorkshire Dales, lies near the border of Lancashire to the west, and the nearby hamlet of Ireby. St. Mary's Church Ingleton ...

and Halton Gill are derived names of villages. The stream flowing through a gill is often referred to as a beck: for example in

Swaledale Swaledale is one of the northernmost dales (valleys) in Yorkshire Dales National Park, located in northern England. It is the dale of the River Swale on the east side of the Pennines in North Yorkshire. Geographical overview Swaledale runs ...

, Gunnerside Beck flows through Gunnerside Ghyll. ''Beck ''is also used as a more general term for streams in the north of England – examples include Ais Gill Beck, Arkle Beck and Peasey Beck. In the

North Pennines The North Pennines is the northernmost section of the Pennine range of hills which runs north–south through northern England. It lies between Carlisle to the west and Darlington to the east. It is bounded to the north by the Tyne Valley an ...

, the word sike or syke is found in similar circumstances. This is particularly common in the Appleby Fells area where sikes significantly outnumber the becks and gills; it can also be seen in the name of Eden Sike Cave in Mallerstang. In the

High Weald High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift t ...

gills are deeply cut ravines, usually with a stream in the base which eroded the ravine. These gills may be up to deep, which represents a significant physiographic feature in lowland England.

References

Place name element etymologies Ravines Fluvial landforms English suffixes {{Topography-stub

See also

References