The Hills and Mountains of Britain

What is a Mountain?

There are several groupings, or classifications, of British Hills

Are 2 'tops' seperate mountains, or part of the same mountain? It depends on the drop between them. Some list require a 15m or 30m drop. The Marilyns require a much larger 150m drop, so in some respects they are the better list

England, Wales and the Isle of Man

• Hewitt : High hills - tops over 2,000 feet, drop of 30m
• Dewey : Medium hills - tops from 500 to 2,000 feet, drop of 30m
• Nuttalls are like Hewitts, but need a drop of 15m, so there are far more of them

Scotland

• Munro - Distinct mountains over 3,000 feet
• Murdo - Tops over 3,000 feet.
• Corbett
• Donald

Ireland

While there are list maintainers for Irish Hills , the British Hills database doesn't cover them, so I've used a seperate data source

Relatively High Hills

The Marilyn's are a list of the relatively highest hills (i.e. hills with a big drop on all sides compared to the surrounding land, not their absolute height). This means there are some in the southeast!

Some very obvious viewpoints are still missed, for example Beachy Head (because its in the same "hill" as Wilmington Hill, which is higher).

For more on the Marilyn's, see : The Relative Hills of Britain by Alan Dawson.

British Hills Database

The source of this data is the Database of British Hills

Most website and mountain software use this list, so the "hill numbers" should be portable

Last Update: Feb-10 by Andrew