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. Ravines are typically classified as larger in scale than gullies, although smaller than valleys. Ravines may also be called a cleuch, dell, ...

or narrow valley in the

North of England Northern England, or the North of England, refers to the northern part of England and mainly corresponds to the historic counties of Cheshire, Cumberland, Durham, Lancashire, Northumberland, Westmorland and Yorkshire. Officially, it is a gr ...

and parts of Scotland. The word originates from the

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was 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 ...

. 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 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 strea ...

, and Cowgill, Masongill and Halton Gill are derived names of villages. In

South East England South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, regions of England that are in the ITL 1 statistical regions of England, top level category for Statistics, statistical purposes. It consists of the nine counties of england, ...

, the High Weald 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. The 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 Yorkshire, Cumbria, south Durham and north Lancashire – examples include Ais Gill Beck,

Arkle Beck Arkle Beck is the stream running through the valley of Arkengarthdale in the Yorkshire Dales, England. It is a tributary of the River Swale, which it joins just past Reeth at Grinton Bridge. The beck Beck David Hansen (born Bek David Cam ...

and Peasey Beck. There are also examples in

Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...

, including Hagon Beck,

Scarrow Beck Scarrow Beck is a minor watercourse. The Gill (ravine), beck rises in the north of the England, English county of Norfolk. It is a tributary of the River Bure. Its Spring (hydrosphere), spring is in the North Norfolk village of Aylmerton west o ...

and Gur Beck. In the North Pennines, 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 Mallerstang is a civil parishes in England, civil parish in the extreme east of Cumbria, and, geographically, a wikt:dale, dale at the head of the upper River Eden, Cumbria, Eden Valley. Originally part of Westmorland, it lies about south of t ...

References

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

See also

References