A gill or ghyll is a ravine or narrow valley in the North of England and other parts of the United Kingdom. The word originates from the Old Norse . Examples include Dufton Ghyll Wood, Dungeon Ghyll, Troller's Gill and Trow Ghyll. As a related usage, Gaping Gill 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 A stream is a continuous body of water, body of surface water Current (stream), flowing within the stream bed, bed and bank (geography), banks of a channel (geography), channel. Depending on its location or certain characteristics, a stream ...

flowing through a gill is often referred to as a beck: for example in Swaledale, 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 word sike or syke is found in similar circumstances. This is particularly common in the

Appleby Fells Appleby Fells is a Site of Special Scientific Interest in the Eden district of Cumbria, England, near Appleby-in-Westmorland. The area is approximately a triangle with a right angle in the North East at Cow Green Reservoir. It extends westwards ...

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