Lists of mountains and hills in the British Isles


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 to reach all the summits on a given list, the oldest being the 282 Munros in Scotland, created in 1891.
A height above 2,000 ft, or more latterly 600 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 , does not meet the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation definition of an "independent peak", which is a threshold over. Most lists consider a prominence between as a "top". 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 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 of at least 2,000 feet. The UK government legally defines a mountain as land over for the purposes of freedom of access. When Calf Top in Cumbria 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 described Calf Top as England's "last mountain".
Regardless of the technical definition of a mountain, cultural norms also feature, with mountains in Scotland being frequently referred to as hills irrespective of their height; examples being the Cuillin Hills and the Torridon Hills.

Prominence

All British Isles-wide mountain classifications, and most country-specific classifications, include an explicit minimum topographical prominence threshold, which is typically.
The lowest prominence threshold is , but most classifications have a prominence threashold above. Many classifications use the term "Tops" for peaks with prominence between , while other classifications ignore height and just focus purely on prominence.
Prominence requirements feature in International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation classifications of Himalayan mountains. In 1994, the UIAA stated that for a "peak" to be independent, 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. However, the concept is embedded in the qualitative definition of a Scottish Munro, and the Scottish Mountaineering Club requirement of "sufficient separation".

''Database of British and Irish Hills''

The Database of British and Irish Hills 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 eight editors, and is described by the Long Distance Walkers Association as "now the most reliable online source for all Registers". 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 20,859 hills, including all Marilyns, HuMPs, TuMPs, Simms, Dodds, Munros and Tops, Corbetts and Tops, Grahams and Tops, Donalds and Tops, Furths, Hewitts, Nuttalls, Buxton & Lewis, Bridges, Murdos, Deweys, Donald Deweys, Highland Fives, Wainwrights, Birketts, Synges, Fellrangers, County tops, SIBs, Dillons, Arderins, Vandeleur-Lynams, Myrddyn Deweys, 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.

British Isles

P600 (the "Majors")

The P600s are mountains in the British Isles that have a topographical prominence of at least, regardless of absolute height or other merits. The list was developed by Alan Dawson and refined between 2004 and 2006. Dawson initially used a 2,000 ft metric, and called his list the "Majors"; it is one of the shortest of the classification lists of mountains in the British Isles as it has some of the most testing threshold requirements. The term "Major" has been used by others when listing the P600 peaks. 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 P600s in the Republic of Ireland, brought the total number of P600 mountains in the British Isles to 119. Since 2006, Welsh peak Moel Siabod's prominence was recalculated to, and the list of P600s was expanded to 120, although others, such as Alan Dawson, have re-estimated Moel Siabod's prominence at 599.9 metres – just below the P600 threshold – and stick to the original total of 119.
The British Isles' P600s contain 54 of the 282 Scottish Munros, and 10 of the 34 Non-Scottish Munros, which are also called ; these 64 British Isles' mountains meet the designation of being above in height, and in prominence, and are known as "Super-Majors".
P600 is international mountain classification criterion, along with P1500, 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. As at April 2020, there were 1,552 Marilyns in Great Britain: 1,219 in Scotland, 175 in England, and 158 in Wales. There are 454 Marilyns in Ireland, and five on the Isle of Man, 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 Marilyn Monroe| Monroe. 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.

HuMPs

The Marilyns were expanded in 2007 by the HuMPs, which reduced the prominence requirement to ; all British Isles Marilyns are British Isles HuMPS. Though he did not use the term HuMP, Eric Yeaman's Handbook of the Scottish Hills 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 TuMPs and most, if not all, are mountains, depending on whether 600 metres or 2,000 feet , 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 June 2020 only three people had registered completion of the 2,531 Simms of Great Britain, all 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 as yet only one of the three completers has "topped up".

TuMPs

In 2010, Mark Jackson further expanded the HuMPS and compiled the TuMPs, 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 over. The list was originally compiled by Sir Hugh Munro in 1891, and is modified from time to time by the Scottish Mountaineering Club. 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 227 further Munro Tops, totalling 509 summits, all of them in the Scottish Highlands.
Real Munro is used to describe Munros with a prominence over , 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 a height above and a prominence either over , or a prominence over , but the term is not in widespread use.

Murdos

The Murdos apply a quantitive criteria to the Munros 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 ; one of the Munros does not qualify as a Murdo, 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 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 454 Corbett Tops, and thus 676 Corbetts and Corbett Tops in total.

Grahams

The Grahams are mountains in Scotland between high, with a drop of at least all round. A list of 224 mountains fitting these criteria was first published in 1992 by Alan Dawson in The Relative Hills of Britain, as the Elsies. They were later named Grahams after the late Fiona Torbet who had compiled a similar list around the same time. Dawson continues to maintain the list, which as of April 2020 contained 219 hills distributed as follows: Highlands south of the Great Glen 87, Highlands north of the Great Glen 84, Central and Southern Scotland 23, Skye 10, Mull 7, Harris 3, Jura 2, Arran 1, Rum 1, South Uist 1. There are six differences from the original list of 224 Grahams that arose from re-surveys. Creag na h-Eararuidh replaced neighbour Beinn Dearg. Five Grahams were dropped including: Ben Aslak, Corwharn and Ladylea Hill as they were below the height threshold; Cnoc Coinnich as it was above the height threshold; Stob na Boine Druim-fhinn as it was below the prominence threshold. Climbers who summit all of the Grahams are known as Grahamists.
In 2004, Dawson published a list of Graham Tops covering every mountain in Scotland with between of height and between of prominence. There are 776 Graham Tops, thus giving an overall total of 995 Grahams and Graham Tops.

Donalds

The Donalds are mountains in the Scottish Lowlands 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.

Outside Scotland

Furths

Furths are mountains in Great Britain and Ireland that are of 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. Of these 34 SMC identified Furths, 33 have a prominence above , 14 have a prominence above , and 10 have a prominence above .
The Scottish Mountaineering Club maintains the list of Furths and records claims of Munroists who go on to complete the Furths.

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 list is compiled and maintained by Clem Clements. The list is a subset of the Nuttall classification, 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, 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 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 in the Lake District, the peaks of all of the Nuttalls can be reached without resort to rock climbing., 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 need not be summited as they are in a restricted area of Warcop Artillery Range.

England only

Wainwrights

The Wainwrights are mountains or hills in the English Lake District National Park that have a chapter in one of Alfred Wainwright'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. 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, Graystones and Mungrisdale Common; Birketts are listed in the.

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 by Claude Wall, and later made a metric version published in 1997. There are 273 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, which is the County Top for County Laois and County Offaly 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, 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, site of the Battle of Binnion Hill, and possibly the source of the name.

County tops

Climbing to the highest point of each county is a form of peak bagging, dating back to the 1920s when John Rooke Corbett was attempting to visit all British County Tops.

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 Dodds is a list of hills in the England, Wales, and Scotland between in height, with a prominence above. The criteria for Dodds are designed to include Simms below 600 metres, but above 500 metres. In 2015, the Relative Hills of Britain website identified 1,339 Dodds. The name comes from "Donald Deweys, Deweys and Scotland.

Hardys

A Hardy is the highest point of a UK hill range, a UK island over or 4.05 km²) or a UK top-tier administrative area. There are now 347 Hardys with the recent addition 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.

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. 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 by Chris Buxton and Gwyn Lewis. 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.

Fellrangers

The Database of British and Irish Hills recognises as Fellrangers the 227 Lake District summits in Mark Richard's Fellranger series of eight guidebooks, A list is available on the HillBagging website. There is no height or prominence threshold.

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, and a list is available on the HillBagging website. There is no height or prominence threshold.

Regional lists

The following are lists of hills for a given region in the British Isles:
England: