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IntroductionThe purpose of the database is twofold:
The database is provided in two principal formats: an Access database (with Excel and csv versions), and an online database accessible at www.hill-bagging.co.uk. Both formats offer logging facilities, with personal ascent records readily transferable between the two. Hill-bagging does not return the fields with absolute grid reference, latitude/longitude (except by reading off the map) or revision date, but includes links to photographs on the summitareas website. Many hills occur in more than one list, which may give different data in the original sources. Where list authors appear to have chosen different locations for the summit, we have recorded this in the database. In cases where the locations could be regarded as separate summits we have listed the hills separately. This can be a subjective decision; we hope the majority of users will agree with our choices. Changes to hill lists are generally announced on the rhb group, or for Nuttalls, on The Nuttalls' site. They are also mentioned on the news page of this site and in the revision history of the next release. Many of the recent promotions, deletions and relocations have been triggered by surveys by the database authors. We do not record changes to a hill's classification unless agreed by the list author. This can occasionally give rise to anomalies in the data. List of discrepancies If you find any errors or wish to query any of the data, please email the authors at the address on the home page. Summary of listsThe following table summarises the main lists included in the database. It excludes subs, Marilyn and Hump Twin Tops and some subjective or historic lists for which prominence-based equivalents are available (Bridge, Buxton & Lewis, Dillon). More information on the individual lists is given in Definitions, and background under History.It can be seen that some lists are subsets of other lists. The Marilyns are a subset of the Humps. The Corbetts and Grahams are subsets of the Marilyns. The Hewitts could be regarded as a subset of the Nuttalls although the authors give slightly different summit locations for two hills. National lists
1 For lists where the current or original definition is expressed in feet
The Isle of Man is included in the listings of British Marilyns, Humps, Tumps and Deweys, but not in Hewitts, Nuttalls or Sims. Some older lists of British 2000ft hills, including Bridge and Buxton & Lewis, include Snaefell on the Isle of Man. Regional lists
1 As for Donald Tops but more than 17 units from the main top of the 'Hill' to which it belongs, where a unit is either one-twelfth of a mile measured along the connecting ridge or one 50-foot contour between the lower Top and its connecting col
HistoryThe first list of British hills to gain popularity, of Scottish mountains over 3000 feet high, was compiled by Sir Hugh Munro in 1891. The Munros were joined by the Corbetts and Donalds and became well known thanks to their publication in Munro's Tables. It took a surprisingly long time for a definitive list of Scottish hills in the range 2000-2500 feet to appear, but in the 1997 edition of Munro's Tables the SMC adopted the list of Grahams which Alan Dawson had first published in 1992. Of Dawson's other Scottish lists, the Murdos and the New Donalds were motivated by a desire to bring objectivity to the classification of Munro Tops and Donalds. Breaking new ground was Corbett Tops and Corbetteers (1999). Corbett Tops are subsidiary summits of Munros and Corbetts within the Corbett height range. This was followed by Graham Tops and Grahamists (2004). This last list subsumes the New Donalds.Completions of the Munros (with Tops and Furths) are recorded by the SMC. The SMC also records completions of Corbetts, Grahams and Donalds by those who have completed the Munros. Completions of Corbetts are recorded by the editor of TACit Press. Completions of Grahams and Graham Tops are recorded by Alan Dawson in the Marilyn News Centre. There does not appear to be a record of completions of Corbett Tops on the web. The lists of Grahamists and Donaldists on the TACit Press website have not been kept up to date. Outside Scotland, the Hewitts (Hills in England, Wales and Ireland over Two Thousand feet high), together with the Nuttalls in England and Wales, are the most accurate and up-to-date of a succession of publications listing the 2000-foot summits. In Ireland, the most popular list in recent years has been The Mountains of Ireland by Paddy Dillon. A listing of Irish hills equivalent to the Nuttalls was superseded in 1997 by a metric equivalent, the Vandeleur-Lynams. Some of the earlier lists are of historical interest but for practical use most people will have little reason to look beyond those mentioned above. However we acceded to requests to include Buxton & Lewis (1986) and Bridge (1973) although we do not reference them in the classification field. The last two lists are defined by the original publication and are not subject to revision. Those interested in the lists of Simpson, Moss and Wright are referred to Moss. The only significant differences between Moss's table and ours come from our decision to create a new hill for the location given by Bridge and Buxton & Lewis for Pen Pumlumon Llygad-bychan, viz. the north-eastern summit at SN801873, and a correction to the listings for Wether Hill (Buxton & Lewis give the southern summit, and so now do the Nuttalls). Moss's table omits changes to the Nuttalls since 2006, and lists the Sweats rather than the Hewitts that superseded them. Completions of the English, Welsh and Irish 2000-foot hills are recognised by the Long Distance Walkers Association (LDWA). It might be thought unreasonable to treat England and Wales as one country, but only The Nuttalls will record completions of one list without the other. The first publication to list the 500m tops of England and Wales was Michael Dewey's Mountain Tables in 1995. They effectively extend the Hewitts down to 500m. Completions are recorded by the LDWA. The Deweys were extended to Ireland (the Myrddyn Deweys) by Michael Dewey and Myrddyn Phillips in 2000, and to the Scottish Lowlands (Donald Deweys) by David Purchase in 2001. Hitherto, 500m hills in the Scottish Highlands have not had a separate identity, but a complete listing of Scottish 500m hills was compiled by Rob Woodall using data from Tony Payne, Clem Clements, John Kirk and others and uploaded to the rhb group (2003, revised 2006). To distinguish the Highland hills from the Donald Deweys in searches etc. we have named them Highland Fives. All the 500m lists have been comprehensively revised since their original publication by the authors, the editorial team, or both. The Marilyns was the first list with a criterion on drop alone, and none on height. Published by Alan Dawson in The Relative Hills of Britain in 1992, the Marilyns quickly attracted the interest of serious baggers. Marilynists' interests are covered by a website, an e-group, a newsletter and an annual meet. The completion of the 1554 Marilyns of Great Britain is a formidable challenge which because of the inaccessibility of the St Kilda sea stacs has yet to be achieved, but a tally of 600 is sufficient to join the Marilyn Hall of Fame. The Marilyns were extended to Ireland by Clem Clements in The Hewitts and Marilyns of Ireland in 1997. Marilyns have a drop (minimum descent before ascending to higher ground; also known as relative height or prominence) of at least 150m. They were supplemented in 2007 with the Humps (Hundred Metre Prominence) which reduces the minimum drop to 100m. The list was compiled by Mark Jackson from a large number of sources and published online in More Relative Hills of Britain (12Mb). There are almost 3000 British Humps, including three in the Channel Islands. There are a further 833 Humps in Ireland; the first complete listing was produced by Jim Bloomer in 2011. Background to the Humps project is given in www.hill-bagging.co.uk. By analogy with the Marilyn Hall of Fame, Mark Jackson created the Humps Hall of Fame, requiring 1200 ascents of British Humps. The Tumps (Thirty & Upward Metre Prominences) comprise all the hills of Britain with 30m or more of drop, with no minimum height. Thus it incorporates a number of other hill lists, and naturally owes its existence to many contributors over several years. The Murdos, Corbett Tops, Graham Tops, Hewitts, Deweys, Donald Deweys and Highland Fives comprise the portion of the Tumps above 500 metres. The hills between 300 and 500 metres were first listed by Clem Clements. His work, though never published, was made available to the rhb community, which paved the way for a complete listing of Tumps to be released by Mark Jackson in 2009, upon finishing three years of on-and-off research into the c.8,000 hills below 300 metres. Myrddyn Phillips' independently compiled list of Welsh hills below 500 metres also proved a very useful resource. The finished list contains over 16,000 hills, and has been greeted by a mixture of enthusiastic bagging and the feeling that this is all a bit much. In recent years the list has been maintained and improved by Andrew Tibbetts, who in January 2012 released an Excel file containing the 10,000-odd hills not present in the DoBIH. The Tumps Hall of Fame, which at the end of 2012 had 10 participants with more than 2,000 Tumps under their belt, is maintained by Adrian Rayner. For enquiries about or corrections to the Tumps please contact . There are no qualification criteria for Wainwrights, which were almost certainly not conceived as a list, but a tradition of climbing them has developed. The Birketts are a more recent listing of Lake District Hills. Completions of both lists are recognised by the LDWA. The County Tops of England and Wales were first listed by Moss in 1951. Other listings appeared from 1973 onwards, including coverage of Scotland and Ireland in 1985. In Britain, the frequent local government reorganisations have caused lists based on administrative boundaries to become quickly out of date, and some walkers may prefer to ascend the highest points of the historic counties. More recently Simon Edwardes overhauled the county tops for the hill-bagging website and produced lists based on both historic and administrative boundaries. These lists are given in the database. The LDWA records completions of County Tops in England, Wales and Ireland. In June 2010 Alan Dawson proposed a new set of metric categories to replace the familiar lists of British hills over 2000ft high. The only one of these lists to have attracted significant interest is the Sims (Six-hundred Metre Summits), comprising all hills in Scotland, Wales and England over 600m high with at least 30m drop. Unlike the other metric categories, most of which offer a straightforward "metric" alternative to an existing list, the Sims unify seven existing lists and cover the whole of Great Britain. The principle has now been extended to Ireland. For completeness we have added the Isle of Man (one summit, Snaefell), but this hill is not on Dawson's list. The Sims Hall of Fame requires the ascent of 2000 British Sims. There is considerable interest in listing mountains worldwide that meet defined prominence thresholds. For information visit the Topographic Prominence and Europeaklist websites and their associated discussion groups. An early US led initiative was to list hills worldwide with a drop of at least 2000ft (609.6m). Although a register of baggers' totals is maintained by Andy Martin (and by Rob Woodall for British based walkers), the prominence criterion has been superseded by 500m or 600m in countries outside the US. The Major Mountains of Britain and Ireland, abbreviated to the Majors, have a minimum 600m of drop. Hills having a drop of at least 500m or 600m can be obtained by a search on drop, or by a sort in the Excel version, and both lists are offered on the hill-bagging website. Internationally, 1500m drop has become the accepted standard for the most prominent mountains and the category is known as the Ultras. In v11.2 we added the Trail 100, a list of 100 hills published in Trail magazine in 2007 which had become popularised by becoming the objective of the WaterAid Trail 100 charity challenge. It required the addition of three hills, one of which was Slieve Donard in Northern Ireland. Prior to version 12, Slieve Donard was temporarily given hill number 5617 (though not on www.hill-bagging.co.uk, which already had an Ireland listing). That hill number has now been reused. Users of the Excel version should be aware that the British hills file no longer includes Slieve Donard, which can be found as hill 20016 in the Irish sequence. The charity event was not repeated after 2008 and 2009, but the list is still referenced in Trail. Revisions to the listsMost current lists based on height or prominence criteria have been subject to regular revision. Changes can be broadly classified into the following:
A replacement creates a new hill in the database whereas a relocation does not. Most moves of more than 400m are categorised as replacements, but lesser moves are similarly treated if the summit has a clearly separate identity, or if the former summit is retained as a member of a different list (e.g. the former Marilyn summit of Wansfell is a Birkett). Our definition of replacement is more liberal than that adopted by the RHB updates (where the criterion appears to be a name change), or the Appendix to the Humps e-book (which requires 30m of drop between the original summit and the replacement). This is necessary in order that a change in location does not invalidate baggers' records, including walkers' logs in the hill-bagging website. For example, Botley Hill, which moved by 1km, clearly justified a new record as many baggers had to revisit the hill following the change. In doubtful cases we will create a new hill if there is a fair chance that a bagger of the former summit would not have visited the new one, recognising that most baggers will make an attempt to locate the highest point when there are plausible alternatives in the vicinity. In the case of the relocation of 5372 Frith Hill to the southern summit of Bradlow Knoll, we decided against replacement even though the move is 500m, because walkers will probably have visited the other possible summits (including another to the north) as there are no spot heights on any mapping. A relocation is a significant move (at least 100m, usually more) that is worthy of mention but does not merit a replacement. Relocations are mentioned in the revision history and (at least while they are relatively recent) in the Comments field. Change registersChronological records of changes (excluding data changes) are given for the following lists.
Change Control DatabaseChanges to data in the DoBIH, other than updates from the GPS database, are made through a publicly viewable Change Control Database. Only the database editors can raise change requests, but users may propose changes by email. Changes go through the following stages:
DefinitionsMarilynsBritish and Irish hills of any height with a drop of at least 150 metres on all sides. The geographical area includes the Isle of Man and the islands of St Kilda.A Marilyn Twin Top is a summit of equal height to another Marilyn where the drop between the two is less than 150m and (as of March 2010) at least 30m. There are currently eight twins, all in Britain: An Stuc, Creag an Dhail Bheag, Meall nan Damh, Sidhean a'Choin Bhain, Cnoc Coir a'Phuill, Cruachan Dearg, Middleton Hill and Saugh Hill. The consensus amongst baggers seems to be that for these hills at least, both summits should be climbed in order to claim the Marilyn. The 2010 RHB update sheet lists the first seven of these twins. Meall nan Damh, Sidhean a'Choin Bhain and Cruachan Dearg are also joint Grahams. Sgurr a'Bhac Chaolais and Buidhe Bheinn were de-twinned in November 2012 with the former losing its Corbett status. Creag an Dhail Bheag is not listed in Munro's Tables but is mentioned in the current edition of the SMC guide to the Corbetts. The summits listed in the second table of the RHB update are given by Alan Dawson as examples (not a complete list) of hills with two or more nearby points of apparently equal height with less of 30m of drop between them. For historical reasons some of these summits have separate entries in the database. The seven hills in the 2010 update sheet have now been reduced to two (An Dun and Aberedw Hill) as the others have been resolved by surveying or remapping. Surveys have been unable to resolve An Dun and Aberedw Hill because in both cases the height difference is within the measurement error. Alternative high points for other hills are noted in the Comments field. It is left to the walker to decide whether all such points should be visited; on some hills there are many candidates for the highest point and the exercise could degenerate into pedantry. Some peaks are mentioned in the RHB update and elsewhere as being potentially twin Marilyns. We are aware of only one where the drop may exceed 30m: Cruach a'Chanuill NS106844, a potential twin of 1436 Sgorach Mor. Cruach a'Chanuill has a small 600m contour with no spot height at the summit, so the summit height of 601m is a guess. Saugh Hill is now recognised as a twin of Troweir Hill. HumpsBritish and Irish Hills of any height with a drop of at least 100 metres or more on all sides. The name Hump stands for Hundred Metre Prominence. As all Marilyns qualify as Humps, the classification code Hu is only used for non-Marilyns; however all Humps are returned in searches. The geographical area was extended to the Channel Islands in November 2011.A Twin Hump is defined as a summit of equal height to another Hump where the drop between the two summits is at least 30m but less than 100m. MunrosScottish hills at least 3000 feet in height regarded by the SMC as distinct and separate mountains, based on a list originally published in 1891. Subsidiary summits meeting the height criterion are designated Munro Tops. Summits equivalent to the Munros and Tops in England, Wales and Ireland on the SMC's list are known as Furths.MurdosScottish hills at least 3000 feet in height with a drop of at least 30 metres on all sides. All Murdos are either Munros or Munro Tops but some Munro Tops fail to qualify as Murdos.CorbettsScottish hills between 2500 and 2999 feet high with a drop of at least 500 feet (152.4m) on all sides.Corbett TopsSubsidiary summits of Munros and Corbetts between 2500 and 2999 feet high with a drop of at least 30 metres on all sides. The list was defined in the TACit publication without any upper limit on drop, but as with the Munro Tops (which include the Munros) the category is generally taken to comprise those peaks that do not qualify as Corbetts. The database adopts the latter usage.GrahamsScottish hills between 2000 and 2499 feet high with a drop of at least 150 metres on all sides.Graham TopsSubsidiary summits of Munros, Corbetts and Grahams between 2000 and 2499 feet high with a drop of at least 30 metres on all sides. The list was defined without an upper limit on drop, but as with the Corbett Tops, the term is usually taken to mean Graham Tops that are not Grahams.DonaldsHills in the Scottish Lowlands at least 2000 feet high. 'Tops' are all elevations with a drop of at least 100 feet (30.48m) on all sides and elevations of sufficient topographical merit with a drop of between 50 and 100 feet. Certain of these are designated 'Hills' according to a formula based on both distance and drop: see the footnote to the second table in Summary of lists.A related list is Dawson's New Donalds, not given here, in which the qualifying criterion is simplified to 30 metres of drop. The New Donalds are a subset of the Grahams and Graham Tops. Anyone who has completed the Donalds and Donald Tops will have visited all the New Donalds. HewittsHills in England, Wales and Ireland at least 2000 feet high with a drop of at least 30 metres on all sides.NuttallsHills in England and Wales at least 2000 feet high with a drop of at least 15 metres on all sides, as published in The Mountains of England and Wales. The list includes 127 summits that do not qualify as Hewitts. Particularly notable is Pillar Rock as its ascent by the easiest route is a Moderate rock climb or Grade 3 scramble. Many of these additional summits, including Pillar Rock, also feature in Bridge's and Buxton & Lewis's lists. Completions without Pillar Rock are accepted by the LDWA and the Nuttalls, though this is recorded.Vandeleur-LynamsHills in Ireland at least 600 metres high with a drop of at least 15 metres on all sides. In 1952 Joss Lynam produced a list of 2000ft summits with 50ft drop with assistance from Rev C R P Vandeleur. Joss Lynam updated a version of this list and published it in a reprint of "Mountaineering in Ireland" by Claude Wall printed in 1976. The metricised equivalent was published in 1997. Lynam was actively involved with the list until 2002, thereafter assisting MountainViews with subsequent revisions until his death in 2011.DillonsHills in Ireland at least 2000 feet high published in The Mountains of Ireland. There is no prominence criterion. 15 Dillons are not Hewitts; 12 Hewitts are not Dillons.DeweysHills in England, Wales and the Isle of Man at least 500m high and below 609.6m with a drop of at least 30m on all sides. Equivalent lists in other geographical areas are the Donald Deweys in the Scottish Lowlands, the Highland Fives in the Scottish Highlands, and the Myrddyn Deweys in Ireland.The most awkward Dewey is Great Links Tor, which even with the aid of a ladder to gain the crag presents difficulties on wet rock. A completion without Great Links Tor is accepted by the LDWA, though this is recorded. SimsHills in Britain and Ireland at least 600 metres high with a drop of at least 30 metres on all sides. The British Sims comprise all Murdos, Corbetts, Corbett Tops, Grahams, Graham Tops and Hewitts together with hills in the range 600—609.6m. We have extended the Sims to the Isle of Man (one summit) and Ireland.TumpsBritish hills of any height with at least 30m of drop. The downloadable versions of the DoBIH include only Tumps belonging to other lists. The remainder, all below 490m in height, are available in the P30 Appendix. Hills in the P30 Appendix can be obtained in the online version of the DoBIH (www.hill-bagging.co.uk) via a search option.ArderinsHills in Ireland at least 500 metres high with a drop of at least 30m on all sides. The list was compiled in 2002 by Simon Stewart in MountainViews and named in 2009. The name comes from the 527m hill which is the County Top for both Laois and Offaly and means, from the Irish, "Height of Ireland". In principle the list amalgamates the Irish Hewitts and Myrddyn Deweys, but there are some differences due to use of a different data source – see discrepancies.CarnsHills in Ireland between 400 and 499.9m high with a drop of at least 30m on all sides as defined by MountainViews, based on a list originally supplied to the Mountaineering Council of Ireland by Myrddyn Phillips. The name comes from Carn Hill, Cnoc an Chairn, "hill of the cairn" in the Sperrins. We have overhauled the data using current and old maps and produced an updated listing identified with the classification code 4. The Mountainviews list can be obtained in searches via the code Ca. Differences between the two lists are tabulated in discrepancies.WainwrightsThe 214 hills listed in volumes 1-7 of Wainwright's A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells.Wainwright Outlying FellsHills listed in The Outlying Fells of Lakeland. A previously published source of data is New Combined Indexes to A. Wainwright's Pictorial Guides, John M Turner, Second Edition (1984), Lingdales Press. This list has many inaccuracies. Not least, it is short of two summits explicitly mentioned in Wainwright's book (Caermote Hill, for which the author gives the location of St John's Hill; and the southern summit of Newton Fell) and it also omits the 12 nameless summits. In version 6 we overhauled the entire list using the latest 1:25000 maps and where necessary, older metric and imperial maps. The assistance of correspondents in this onerous task is gratefully acknowledged.We mention that the task of producing a definitive list of summits is far from straightforward because of the many occasions when the location of Wainwright's summit is not coincident with the highest point in the vicinity. Often this is due to Wainwright's preference for designating a recognisable feature such as a cairn, but in other cases it stems from inaccuracies in the OS maps of the time. Where matters of interpretation come into play we have mentioned this in the Comments field. A few summits would benefit from a site visit for confirmation of the exact location. The list at the back of Wainwright's book contains 110 named fells and summits. Close inspection shows seven of them to refer to other hills in the list, while Newton Fell has two summits. Thus:
BirkettsLake District hills over 1,000ft listed in Bill Birkett's Complete Lakeland Fells.County TopsThe highest point within (or sometimes on) the boundary of each county.County boundaries change over time. There are different county lists, covering the traditional historic counties and the more recent mixtures of administrative areas. We provide three separate lists of county tops that we believe are the most commonly used in the pursuit of county top bagging:
For completeness, we have also provided a list of London Borough tops. In terms of administrative tier, these are at the same level as Metropolitan Districts. Twin tops are listed for some County Tops. For further information on British county history, see hill-bagging (England and Wales), hill-bagging (Scotland). Deleted TopsSometimes a hill that once appeared on a list is later removed. In the past the most common cause was remapping, though many Munro Tops were deleted on subjective grounds. Since 2006, most deletions have resulted from surveys, generally by the DoBIH survey team.All deleted tops are present in the database, but only deletions in the SMC lists and deleted Nuttalls are identified by a classification code. The convention prior to v12 of giving codes to all hills that had not become "subs" had the merit of explaining the presence of otherwise unclassified hills in the database but led to the anomaly that a search on (e.g.) deleted Marilyns would return summits that had been relocated but not those demoted to subMarilyn. We believe our current practice best reflects baggers' interests, given that the TACit lists have never formally recognised deletions. For categories lacking their own classification code, the deletion is recorded in the Comments field. The retained deletion categories are:
Change registers for the Marilyns, Humps and Deweys are available on this site. We plan to provide similar change registers for the other lists. SubsPrior to version 12 we defined subs as hills falling marginally short on either height or drop, following the convention in the earlier TACit Tables. We have now adopted Alan Dawson's redefinition of subs in Marhofn 153 (2006), subsequently clarified in the rhb group. Subs are now defined as hills falling short on drop by 10m or less. The rationale for the change was that lists of hills with 30m drop now exist in all height ranges, so marginals on height can be subsumed into those lists. The subGraham category has been removed as hills falling short on drop are a subset of the subMarilyns (the database has never listed subCorbetts as we viewed the Corbetts as an SMC list). The subMarilyn category is arguably redundant as it is a subset of the Humps, but subMarilyns are still listed on the Marilyn News Centre and some walkers like to climb them.The database lists subs of Marilyns, HumpS, Murdos, Corbett Tops, Graham Tops, Hewitts, Deweys, Donald Deweys, Myrddyn Deweys, Highland Fives and 490-499m hills. In Ireland the s4 code includes a few subs of 400-489m hills that appear in the Carns listing. The statistical error associated with heights on OS maps means that some marginals have a non-negligible probability of qualifying for a list. Serious baggers who wish to legitimately claim ascent of all hills meeting the list criteria will need to climb some subs, in addition to hills falling short on height. As a rough guide, for hills whose height and drop have not been established by accurate surveying you should climb those within 3m of the qualifying height and 4m of drop. If you are interested in the English 2000s you should also climb Calf Top as the surveying error exceeds the shortfall on height. For further information see Allowing for measurement error. It would be wrong, incidentally, to assume that hills falling short on both height and drop have an insignificant probability of qualification. A change in summit height will often induce a corresponding change in drop. Birks Fell was at one time a DoubleSubHewitt (in the old classification) with height 608m and drop 29m. Description of fieldsNotes on the contents of the database fields follow. The following abbreviations are used when referring to sources:RHB=The Relative Hills of Britain; TACit=TACit Tables. Significant changes to Marilyns since RHB's publication in 1992 are summarised in update sheets every few years that can be found on the Marilyn News Centre. The TACit Tables have not been updated, apart from the Grahams. NumberA unique hill identifier to assist with revision and help users raise queries with the authors. The hill number will not be changed during the lifetime of the database unless it is unavoidable; such rare events will be well publicised. To upgrade non-Access versions, sort the old and new releases by hill number and paste your personal ascent records from one to the other.NameThe name by which the hill generally appears in lists. For Tops of Munros, Corbetts and Grahams, the name of the parent is given first followed by the name of the Top as it appears in the published list. The same convention is used for subMurdos, subCTs and subGTs, and for a few other hills where the summit has a different name from the hill.Where a Scots Gaelic name has an apostrophe, our convention is not to use a trailing space. Thus we give Stuc a'Chroin rather than Stuc a' Chroin. However where a' is a contraction (for hills this is usually a contraction of "an") it is correct to insert a space, and the OS generally does so. Our usage aligns with RHB, the TACit Tables and most hill names in Munro's Tables, and as we have followed this convention since v1 we believe that maintaining our current practice is the least confusing for users. To facilitate searching, accents appearing in Gaelic and Welsh names have been removed. Alternative names by which a hill is known are given in square brackets. Qualifiers are enclosed in round brackets. Irish hill names are taken from Clements' TACit Tables and MountainViews. For British hills we try to include all names appearing in maps and lists that users are likely to search on, even if incorrect. SectionThe RHB/TACit Section number. Sections 1-17 correspond to those in Munro's Tables, enlarged to include lesser hills. In Corbett Tops and Corbetteers (1999) sections 5, 7 and 8 were split for the first time into West (A) and East (B) sections. Section 26 was subsequently split for the Graham Tops booklet. Note that 10A and 10B in Munro's Tables do not correspond to 10A and 10B in RHB.Sections 43-56 apply to Ireland. We have created Section 57 for the Channel Islands. Subsequent to the publication of RHB, the boundary between Sections 1 and 26 was moved to follow the course of the Highland Boundary Fault, resulting in some hills being moved from 1B to 26B. The boundary between Sections 10B and 10C was moved eastwards to Loch Blair and the Allt a'Choire Riabhaich. This resulted in Sgurr Mhurlagain being transferred from 10B in RHB to 10C in Corbett Tops and Corbetteers. Hills duplicated in more than one section of the RHB/TACit Tables, or which could be put in more than one section, have been treated as follows:
Black Mountain (2242, Wales)
Hills on the England-Scotland border
Cuilcagh (20137, Ireland)
_SectionA numeric version of Section with sections 5, 6, 8 and 26 not subdivided, to facilitate sorting. Not shown in searches.RegionThe RHB/TACit Section name.AreaNuttalls and Donalds area names are used for all hills belonging to those lists. This facilitates comparison with the original lists and will also serve for sorting Wainwrights by volume. We also use this field for island names. Within the Irish mainland, most hills are given the area names in use by MountainViews. Future releases may see further development of the Area field.A few hills on the Scotland–England border belong to "Cheviots" in the Nuttalls' volume and "Roxburgh and Cheviots" in the Donalds listing in Munro's Tables. This presents a problem with the Excel and csv versions of the database, unless one adopts the clumsy solution of giving each list a separate Area field. Furthermore, in version 12 we wished to assign area names to other Lowland hills and "Roxburgh and Cheviots" is far from ideal. All versions of Munro's Tables prior to 1997 give two areas, "Roxburgh" (section 11) and "Cheviots" (section 12). The SMC amalgamated the two regions when they removed Auchope Cairn and the six unnumbered English tops in 1997, leaving only three hills in total. We decided the simplest solution was to revert to the pre-1997 sections, as "Cheviots" is also the Nuttalls area name. Accordingly, 1906 Cauldcleuch Head is in "Roxburgh", and 1846 Cairn Hill West Top, 2303 Cairn Hill and 2305 Auchope Cairn are in "Cheviots". Three new area names have been created to accommodate the Donald Deweys. There is no conflict between Nuttalls and Wainwrights because the Nuttalls use the Wainwright volume titles. For Wainwright Outlying Fells we have extended the areas defined in the Pictorial Guides by continuing the Windermere boundary southwards along the River Leven to Greenodd, and from Bassenthwaite Lake north-west along the River Derwent. In England and Wales, the Nuttall and Wainwright names have been used for all other hills falling within those areas, with Central Wales subdivided into three regions. The classification of hills situated between the English Lakes and Yorkshire Dales National Parks will be reviewed in the event of the proposed boundary extensions going ahead. For some Deweys in Wales, one can make a case for a different area name from the one we have chosen. A particular problem lies in the boundary between the Arans and Berwyns for the hills south of Bala from Rhiwaedog-uwch-afon (3421) in the north to Mynydd Maes-glas (3424) in the south. The easiest solution would be either to put them all in the Arans, as Dewey does, or all in the Berwyns. However in the Nuttalls' book, Moel y Cerrig Duon (2116) belongs to the Arans and Foel y Geifr (2115) and Foel Goch (2123) to the Berwyns. Geographically this is not very logical, but the Nuttalls clearly did so because Moel y Cerrig Duon is conveniently included in the same walk as the hills west of the road summit. Our current solution is to assign those hills south of Moel y Cerrig Duon and south-west of Lake Vyrnwy to the Arans, and those north of Moel y Cerrig Duon and to the north-east of Lake Vyrnwy in the Berwyns, with the exception of Moel Eunant (3412) which is a satellite of Moel y Cerrig Duon. We feel this is the best we can do without breaking the alignment with the Nuttalls' book. To divide the Arenigs from the Moelwyns we chose to make the boundary Ffestiniog-B4391-B4407. There are other options but none are demonstrably better. The Moelwyns (as defined by the Nuttalls) span two RHB sections, 30B and 30D. We have used Dewey's area Hiraethog for the four hills within that region as it does not contain any 2000ft summits. For hills outside the areas mentioned above, commonly used regional names are used where appropriate, e.g. Forest of Bowland.
We identify deletions only for SMC lists and Nuttalls. See Deleted Tops and Subs for details of these categories. Additional categories not shown in the classification field but obtainable in the search dialogs and columns of the Excel and csv versions are B&L – Buxton & Lewis, Bg – Bridge, T100 – Trail 100, Ca – Carn, Bin – Binnion. Unclassified hills include deletions, hills surveyed as falling short of Nuttall status, and a handful of hills that existed on www.hill-bagging.co.uk before the databases were merged in v11. Height and Grid ReferenceGreat BritainMuch of the data originally entered into the database came from 1:10000 maps, as used by Dawson in the TACit Tables, though many spot heights are taken from 1:25000 maps and a few from 1:50000 maps. Data for hills not listed in the TACit Tables were most often from 1:25000 maps. We now make routine use of the large scale OS mapping on the Geograph website and the vector maps on the OS OpenData website, both of which show many spot heights absent from the 1:25k and 1:50k maps. This has enabled us to revise many summit and col heights previously estimated by contour interpolation. Many spot heights on Landranger maps are metric conversions of older imperial heights. Heights obtained by ground levelling will be more accurate than air heights on current maps, but their positions on the map may be approximate. For some hills we have taken levelled heights from old 1:10560 or 1:2500 maps, where necessary adjusting for the change in datum from Liverpool Dock to Newlyn in 1921; most corrections are <0.3m. In May 2012 we commenced a systematic review of all the British data using the latest mapping resources, which was completed with the release of v13.1.Spot heights often differ between maps. The largest scale map on Geograph and the OS Openspace vector map are the most consistent on heights, but very occasionally these differ too. Most discrepancies are 1m. Differences of 3m or more almost always correspond to non-identical locations. The error in air heights from photogrammetry is ±3.3m so it does not follow that one measurement is right and another wrong; they are just different estimates of the height. We now have 10-figure grid references from GPS measurements for most hills in the popular lists. As described below, we use these to derive the 6-figure grid reference. For a small but growing number of hills we have accurate height measurements from differential GPS. Other published lists may give different data. One reason why grid references can vary is that authors do not measure them in the same way. By convention, a 6-figure OS Grid Reference is the address of the 100m square in which the feature lies. This is given by the co-ordinates of the south-west corner of the square (the same rule applies however many digits you quote). For example, the trig point of Great Shunner Fell is located at SD 84862 97290 so the correct 6-figure grid reference is SD848972. TACit Tables comply with this convention but many list authors round to the nearest 100m instead; in the above example they would give SD849973. Another reason for published grid references not matching ours is that the true summit may not be identified on the map; there are many examples in the database where a spot height is not at the highest point. Before truncating the entry in the 10-figure grid reference field to create the 6-figure GR, we make a small adjustment to correct for systematic error in the GPS readout (see below). This ensures that 6-figure grid references and xcoord, ycoord values are to the OSGB36 datum. Recognising that GPS measurements are subject to statistical error, and to prevent the possibility of a grid reference see-sawing between two 100m squares as more GPS measurements feed into the average, we do not change the existing 6-figure grid reference unless the 10-figure GR takes it more than 5m over the boundary. For Wainwrights the author sometimes gives a summit location that is not the highest point of the fell. This is particularly true of the Outlying Fells. Our policy is to take the location intended by Wainwright. We have followed the same policy with Birketts. Any doubtful cases are mentioned in the Comments field. Metric heights are converted to feet using a factor of 1/0.3048 (3.2808399). IrelandIrish data are primarily from 1:50000 2009 digital mapping supplied by OSi and OSNI. Reference to 1:25000 mapping has been possible in the Mournes and MacGillycuddy's Reeks. All these maps offer very few spot heights at cols. Harvey Maps have provided some col heights in the Dunkerron Mountains, Maamturks, MacGillycuddy's Reeks, Mangerton, Purple Mountain, Twelve Bens and Dublin/Wicklow areas.Vertical heights on current mapping are relative to mean sea level at Malin Head. Earlier maps, e.g. the half-inch maps and the 1:63360 District Maps, use the low water mark of the spring tide on the 8 April 1837 at Poolbeg Lighthouse, Dublin. The Malin Head datum is approximately 2.7m above the Poolbeg Lighthouse datum. Channel IslandsData are taken from Ministry of Defence maps at 1:25000, 1:10560 or 1:10000 scale based largely on 1960s surveys, supplemented by the States of Jersey Official Leisure Map (1:25000) and the States of Guernsey Official Map (1:15000, with 1:10000 coverage of Alderney, Herm, Jethou, Sark and Brecqhou on the reverse). The latter maps are published by Digimap, the official mapping agency for the Channel Islands. The older maps show many more spot heights than the recent maps. Admiralty charts were also consulted. Note that the vertical datum for the latter is MHWS rather than MSL and heights are quoted to the top of buildings rather than the ground.Grid references are for UTM zone 30U and use the WGS84 datum. This grid is shown on the two "Official" paper maps although it is not the primary grid on the States of Guernsey Official Map, which uses the Guernsey Grid. The grid letters are WA for Alderney and WV for the other islands. Older maps use the ED50 European datum. The two datums give a difference of about 300 metres in grid reference. The extracts from the MoD maps published in the Sunflower guides, and some modern maps such as the 1:12500 International Travel Map of Guernsey and the smaller islands, use the older coordinate system so please bear this in mind when using the data. To avoid potential problems we recommend using latitude/longitude with third party applications. Garmin GPS units use the WGS84 datum by default when set to UTM/UPS grid but return the absolute coordinates (shown in the xcoord, ycoord fields) rather than the lettered GRs. The same is true of GPS Utility. GPS Utility also offers the new Guernsey Grid. There is also a new Jersey Grid, whose parameters can be found in a web search on "Jersey Transverse Mercator". This grid does not appear on the States of Jersey Official Leisure Map. We are grateful to David Purchase for researching the maps and providing the data. Col Height, Col Grid Reference and DropDrop, also known as relative height in Britain and Ireland and prominence in the US, is defined as the height difference in metres between the summit and the col connecting the hill to a higher summit. Where there is more than one such col, the highest is chosen.Cols are usually much less well defined than the summits of hills and therefore six-figure col grid references given in the database generally have an uncertainty of 100m in easting and/or northing. Within much of Ireland there is no data beyond contouring for col position and height. There is, therefore, much greater use of contour interpolation and consequently lower accuracy. Col heights and drops given to 0.1m are from surveys. Col positions given to 8 or 10 figures are Garmin GPS measurements; with the exception of a few obvious locations, these too were determined by surveying. 10 Figure Grid ReferenceExcept where otherwise indicated, all ten-figure grid references were obtained on the ground using Garmin GPS units. In 2003 the authors performed a repeatability study to estimate the precision of measurements from a Garmin eTrex. In the experiment, 100 measurements were made in a fixed location over a period of 76 days. The precision of eastings was significantly greater than the precision of northings; we do not know whether this was a quirk of the chosen location. For eastings, 95% of measurements were within ±3m of the mean and 99% within ±4m; for northings, 95% were within ±4.5m and 99% within ±5.5m. The results were in statistical agreement with the precision reported by the instrument. Many 10-figure grid references in the database are more accurate than this because they are the average of two or more independent readings. Measurements on the later high sensitivity models are also somewhat more precise. Any measurements by differential GPS will be accurate to 1m.The database includes some ten-figure grid references derived from data published by Ordnance Survey for trig points on British hill summits. A comparison of 246 OS measurements with our GPS measurements revealed systematic errors in the GPS data. On average, GPS eastings range from being 7m higher than OS eastings in the westernmost parts of Scotland to 1m lower in the east. GPS northings vary from being 14m lower than OS northings in Northern Scotland to 9m higher in SW England. We are grateful to Darren Parker who had himself discovered this error and researched its cause. We reproduce Darren's explanation below. The latitude and longitude shown on Ordnance Survey maps are determined with respect to the OSGB36 (Ordnance Survey Great Britain 1936) datum. This datum is based upon a ground survey performed between 1936 and 1953 and uses the ellipsoid defined by Sir George Airy in 1830. The latitude and longitude can be converted to planar coordinates using a Transverse Mercator projection (once the origin is defined) to give the National Grid references we use. Since the advent of GPS the method of defining the National Grid has changed. It is now defined using the latitude and longitude determined with respect to the ETRS89 datum (which is based upon the WGS84 datum and uses the GRS80 ellipsoid) which are then converted using a transformation known as OSTN02 to give the grid reference with respect to OSGB36. The OSTN02 transformation is not a simple transformation defined by equations alone, but because of distortions in the OSGB36 grid, it makes slight shifts in northings and eastings. The grids of northing and easting shifts between ETRS89 and OSGB36 cover Britain with a grid resolution of one kilometre. The shifts of a particular point are then interpolated from this grid. The OSTN02 transformation can be performed online at www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/oswebsite/gps or using the Grid InQuest software obtainable via the site.Thus the National Grid is now defined by ETRS89 and the OSTN02 transformation. A good guide to the subject is A guide to coordinate systems in Great Britain. Also available is an Excel spreadsheet with many useful functions for converting from one datum to another. A GPS unit determines the latitude and longitude of its position in the WGS84 datum (which is almost identical to the ETRS89 datum). In order to display this position as a British National Grid reference the GPS unit must perform a transformation. Unfortunately, the transformation equations stored in the unit are not as accurate as the OSTN02 transformation. Garmin and Magellan units use a transformation known as a Molodensky transformation (the equations and required parameters can be found in "Department of Defense World Geodetic System 1984 - Its Definition and Relationship with Local Geodetic Systems, NIMA TR8350.2, 3rd Edition, Amendment 1, 3 Jan 2000"). This leads to the discrepancies highlighted above. The transformations used by other manufacturers have not been investigated. A number of strategies are available to remove the errors introduced by the Molodensky transformation. GPS waypoints can be downloaded to a computer using free or commercial software and the WGS84 latitude and longitude extracted. These can then be converted to British National Grid references using Grid InQuest or the online program, both of which have a batch mode facility. Alternatively, if the British National Grid references have been copied from the GPS screen, these can be converted back into WGS84 latitude and longitude values using the Molodensky transformation equations directly or by using either of the free programs Geotrans or GPS Utility. As before, these can then be converted to British National Grid references using Grid InQuest. All three packages have a batch conversion facility. When entering position coordinates of a location into a GPS, one has to bear in mind the source of the coordinates. If a grid reference has been read from the screen of a GPS unit, then entering the grid reference into another GPS unit using its own input screen will result in a point in the correct location (even though the grid reference may be incorrect). However, if the position coordinates are uploaded using computer software, the coordinates should be in the form of WGS84 latitude and longitude values. Since we presume most users will be using 10-figure grid references for input to GPS units, we have not corrected the GPS measurements for the systematic error described above. A few ten-figure grid references were obtained by differential GPS (see survey), and these instruments report accurate grid references to the OSGB36 standard. To align with the other data, the systematic error of the Garmin/Magellan instruments has been introduced into the grid reference using Grid InQuest and GPS Utility (or Geotrans) i.e. the reverse of the correction procedure described above. We have done the same with the OS trig measurements. Because 6-figure grid references are usually used with maps, we correct 10-figure grid references for the GPS error before truncating them to derive the figure for the Grid Reference field. We perform the correction by successively transforming the data to WGS84 and OSGB36 using GPS Utility and Grid InQuest. This procedure also enables us to populate the Latitude and Longitude fields and to give unbiased values in the xcoord, ycoord fields. The Irish National Grid is defined by the Airy Modified Ellipsoid and the Ireland 65 map datum, which uses a transverse mercator projection (this is in the process of being redefined with respect to the ETRF89 geoid and Irish Transverse Mercator). The transformation from latitude/longitude uses the OSi/OSNI Polynomial Transformation, which can be performed by GridInquest or online. As with British 10-figure grid references, all Irish GPS measurements are transformed to latitude/longitude using GPS Utility and then to xcoord/ycoord using GridInquest. The 6-figure GR is then obtained from the xcoord, ycoord values. Almost all values in the database refer to summit cairns, trig points or the obviously highest point in the vicinity of the six-figure grid reference. A few hills, e.g. Beinn Donachain NN198316, have poorly defined summits where several knolls vie for the title and we have chosen that point which we believe conforms most closely to the position given by the published six-figure reference. Other hills have large summit plateaux and in those cases where no survey has been conducted we have chosen a point within the 100m square given by the six-figure reference that appears to have the highest elevation. In some cases authors believed that other features outside the 100m square defined by the six-figure grid reference might represent the true position of the summit. Few of these data are entered in the DoBIH, but all are recorded in a separate database of GPS measurements from which the entries in the DoBIH are derived. The GPS database is distributed to contributors at regular intervals as an Excel file and to anyone else who requests it. Submitting 10-figure grid referencesIt is our aim to obtain GPS-measured ten-figure grid references for as many hills as possible. Please contact us if you would like to contribute. Each entry in the GPS database is credited to the person who made it. Please record: name and (preferably) number of hill, ten-figure grid reference, height as given by GPS, precision of GPS at time of measurement (if known), what the measurement refers to (e.g. cairn), your name and the date on which the measurement was made. To prevent transcription errors it is helpful if you can use this Excel template; however we will accept data in any format. You can also submit your data on www.hill-bagging.co.uk if you are a registered user. Your GPS should be set up according to the manufacturer's instructions using British Grid as the position format and Ordnance Survey GB as the map datum. For Ireland, use Irish Grid and Ireland 1965, and for the Channel Islands, UTM/UPS and WGS84. GPS units take a few minutes to stabilise and give reliable data. Try to remember to switch on your GPS a few minutes before reaching the summit and try to leave the unit for at least five minutes to settle once it has locked on to satellites before taking a reading.Please send your GPS data to
for British hills and to
for Irish hills. We welcome your input.
Many 10-figure grid references published on the web are not from ground observations. Measurements from maps cannot provide the same degree of accuracy, and spot heights and trig points are often not at the summit. For a list of those who have contributed data, please see acknowledgements. FeatureThe feature on or around the summit to which the 10 figure grid reference refers. The summit area may be adorned with several objects (trig point, cairn, wind-shelter, fence etc.) and the resolution of the GPS is usually sufficient to be able to distinguish the positions of these features. Note that a cairn or trig point is not always at the highest point of the hill, which may itself be featureless. Consequently, the Feature field may contain the entry 'no feature' even though a cairn, trig point or other feature is in the vicinity. This is particularly likely for hills that have been surveyed. In such cases the Observation field is often used to record the summit position relative to more obvious features such as cairns for which ten figure grid references are also frequently recorded.Where no survey equipment has been employed, we do not claim that the feature and its accompanying ten-figure grid reference represents the true summit of the hill; it is the best endeavour of the contributor who submits the data. ObservationsThis field contains information that supplements the Feature field. For example, it may describe the summit relative to other more obvious features, or it may give a grid reference for an alternative summit position.SurveyPrior to v11 this field recorded whether the summit position had been determined by levelling instruments. In v11 we added fields for drop, col position and col height and these too have frequently been the objective of our surveying team. Moreover, our surveying equipment has diversified and since September 2008 we have been able to measure absolute height to <0.1m in addition to drop. Accordingly, the Survey field now records whether any of the summit position, height, drop, col height or col position were determined by surveying, and if so the instrument(s) used. Data given to one or more decimal places are always from survey measurements. Thus for hill 2051 Mynydd y Cwm the Survey field contains "Leica NA730/Leica 530" showing that these instruments were used in the determination of col position, col height, summit position and summit height; the respective fields contain entries to 0.1m.The protocol used by the survey team for defining heights and positions in the presence of water features, moveable rocks, man-made structures, or when ground has otherwise been disturbed by man, is explained in Summits and Cols. The most basic surveying tool we use is an Abney level which has a resolution of about 50cm of height per 100m of distance. This is sufficient to enable the true summit position of most hills to be determined, although the relatively poor resolution only permits height differences to be determined semi-quantitatively. For hills where greater resolution is required, we initially employed a Leica Runner 20 Automatic level. This instrument has a x20 telescope and gives a resolution of about 1cm of height per 100m of distance. We subsequently purchased a Leica NA730 Automatic level which boasts a x30 telescope and correspondingly higher resolution of about 0.5cm of height per 100m of distance. An Abney level is a small device weighing about 150g which easily packs into a rucksack. A Leica Runner weighs about 1500g, occupies significant space in a daysack and also requires a sturdy tripod. We also possess a Leica Disto A8 laser measurer that measures both distances and angles. This was used to survey Castell y Gwynt and the depth of the railway cuttings at the cols of Lambrigg Fell and Milk Hill. Optical levels are of limited use for accurate determination of height because they require a suitable datum e.g. a trig point of similar altitude that can be sighted directly or indirectly. Hills surveyed by this means include Birks Fell, Cracoe Fell and Great Yarlside. Optical levels enable accurate measurements of drop by differential levelling, and this has enabled us to determine the status of hills on the borderline of inclusion in the Nuttalls' and Dewey's lists. Because of the number of staff placements required and the time this would take, the technique is impractical for determining Marilyn status, where the drop is 150m. Differential GPS does not have these limitations, enabling accurate determination of height and drop for most hills. In 2009 we acquired a Leica 530 survey-grade GPS system, which we used on all surveys requiring accurate determination of summit height and for most measurements of drop. Prior to this purchase we surveyed Craig Fach and Mynydd Graig Goch by differential GPS in collaboration with Leica Geosystems. A number of hills have had their drop measured by both optical levelling and differential GPS and agreement has invariably been excellent. In October 2012 we purchased a Leica Viva GS15 Professional GPS receiver to replace the Leica 530. The precision of the two instruments is comparable and dependent on the data collection time. For one hour's data collection this is about ±0.07m (3 standard deviations) and for 3hr data collection it is about ±0.03m (3sd). Where the new instrument has been used the survey field will contain the entry "Leica GS15". The overall precision of a measurement is also dependent on the correct location of the col and/or summit. We do this with level and staff and in the case of cols we take measurements of a grid of flags laid out over the col area in order to determine its topography. This enables us to locate the position of the col as accurately as possible. For most of our surveys the overall uncertainty in summit height is ±0.1m and of col height ±0.15m (3sd), but the nature of the terrain (see below) is critical. For more information see the survey report for the particular hill. During 2012 a Leica RX1250 GPS receiver was acquired by Alan Dawson and his survey results are also recorded in DoBIH. The instrument's precision is the same as that of ours, but until recently (late 2012) when an Abney level was purchased, no instrumental method was used to locate a summit or col. These surveys are identified by "Leica RX1250" in the Survey field and reports may be found at http://www.rhb.org.uk/reports/. In Ireland, Mountainviews has acquired a Trimble Geo XH 6000 receiver. As of v13.1, 63 surveys have been carried out with this instrument. As yet we do not have all the details of the instrument configuration or the survey method employed. Our best estimate of the measurement uncertainty of height, based on our current understanding, is ±1m. Hills containing results determined by this instrument give "Trimble Geo XH 6000" in the Survey field. When surveying summits and more particularly cols, the overall accuracy of the measurements is more often determined by the nature of the terrain than by the limitations of the equipment. If a summit is covered with thick tussock grass or heather, it can be difficult to establish the summit location even using automatic level and staff. In a very few surveys we have determined, from variation in level and staff measurements, uncertainties of up to ±0.2m. The situation is worse for cols of complex topography and thickly vegetated terrain, when uncertainties could reach ±0.5m on occasion. Clearly, without instrumentation to locate summits and cols, it is sometimes impossible to produce satisfactory estimates of the uncertainty in the measurements, which could exceed the above figures. The heights of Foinaven and Beinn Dearg were measured by a survey company, CMCR, for The Munro Society. Our survey reports can be read at www.hill-bagging.co.uk/surveys.php. For details of the surveying methods and more detailed discussion of the accuracy of the measurements, see The Accuracy of The Munro Society Heighting Surveys. Video footage of some of the surveys can be viewed at G & J Surveys. Where an instrument is not required to determine the summit position and no other survey has been conducted, 'obvious summit' is recorded in the Survey field. A blank field denotes that the hill has not been surveyed. County nameThis field applies only to the Excel and csv versions. It gives the relevant county or counties for County Tops. The Access database offers searches of all hills by county.RevisionThe date of the last change to the primary data: classification, 6-figure GR, height, drop and col location. We did not change the revision date when we added col height and location for the first time.CommentsSignificant revisions, alternative summit locations not from our own surveys, and other explanatory notes. We do not comment on revisions of a routine nature.Streetmap/OSiLink to an OS 1:50000 map on www.streetmap.co.uk. The next zoom setting gives a 1:25000 map.In Ireland this field links to the OSi map viewer with the Wind Report overlay, which shows more detail than Street Map (beta). In Northern Ireland the only detailed mapping is offered by the Historic options. Hill-baggingLink to the hill's page in www.hill-bagging.co.uk.GeographLink to Geograph mapping. Within Britain, clicking inside the map will give a pop-up window which can be zoomed to 1:50k, 1:25k, and a larger scale.xcoord, ycoordAbsolute grid reference (eastings, northings) in metres relative to the Ordnance Survey National Grid origin, Irish Ordnance Survey National Grid origin, or UTM zone 30 origin as appropriate. Required by some GIS software e.g. ArcView and MapInfo, and old-maps.co.uk. Not available on hill-bagging.Latitude, LongitudeWGS84 coordinates calculated from the xcoord, ycoord values. The accuracy will depend on the source of the measurement. Use of latitude/longitude gives compatibility across Britain, Ireland and the Channel Islands.Recent changes and issuesThe following hills are mentioned because of ambiguity, uncertainty, or to give background to changes in classification. They are listed in Section order.Beinn a'Chroin (2925, 1C), Beinn a'Chroin East Top (36, 1C) and Beinn a'Chroin West Top (37, 1C)All editions of Munro's Tables give hill 36 as the Munro and hill 37 (West Top) as a Munro Top. Research by Richard Webb suggested that a summit 200m east of the West Top was higher than the Munro as long ago as 1983. The latest 1:50000 and 1:25000 maps both show a 942m spot height at NN387185, which the OS has indicated is rounded from 941.5m. This summit, to which we have assigned hill 2925, is now given by the SMC as the Munro on its website and CD. The online version of Munro's Tables does not list Munro Tops, but in view of the considerable separation and drop between the two summits we have assumed hill 36 will become a Munro Top.Munro's Tables gives the West Top as the cairned point at NN385185, hill 37. It likely to be deleted in the next edition as it is only 200m from hill 2925 with ca.10m of drop. To summarise, the current status of the Beinn a'Chroin tops is as follows:
Beinn a'Chlachair East Top (359, 4B)SubMurdo discovered since publication of the TACit booklet. The latest Explorer map has restored the original height of 977m, giving a drop of 29m and raising the possibility of it becoming a Munro Top.An Dun (399/400, 5B)The summit of the Marilyn moved 300m north along the summit ridge in 1995 following the appearance of an 827m spot height on OS Maps, 1m higher than the south top. The 1997 edition of Munro's Tables made the same change. Accordingly, we originally classified hill 400 as deleted Corbett. However the SMC's recently published online version of Munro's Tables has reverted to the previous location. A line survey was unable to separate the pair as the estimated height difference of 3cm is comparable with the measurement error. Hence we regard the two summits as being of equal height. The OS accepted the result and has put an 827m spot on each summit. The Marilyn remains at the north top.Cairn Gorm - Fiacaill na Leth-choin (560, 8A)This top first appeared in the 1921 edition of Munro's Tables and is described as being 2/3 mile WNW of Cairn Lochan. The 1900 1" map, and all later 1" maps, show a ring contour at NH9703 and this grid reference is given in the 1969 Tables. Although the mapping is incorrect (a consequence of the contours being mapped by the less reliable water levelling technique), it nevertheless points to a location near the end of the ridge at NH975028 being the intended summit in Munro's Tables from 1921–1969. This was revised to the position of the 1083m spot height at NH 975024 in the 1974 Tables.Gairbeinn - Corrieyairack Hill (632, 9B)There has been some controversy concerning the location and height of the summit of this former Corbett. The Corbett Tops booklet states that the new summit height is taken from the 1:10000 map and is 1m higher than the old top. We have confirmed this with an Abney level, which showed that the new summit position is 1.5m higher than the old. For the OS's reply to a query see Marhofn 106.Gairbeinn - Carn Leac East Top (4382, 9B)New Corbett Top discovered since publication of Corbett Tops and Corbetteers.Carn Dearg - Carn na Criche (6233, 9B)This hill is on the borderline for qualification as a Corbett Top and Sim. The drop varies with the mapping:— Geograph at maximum magnification gives summit 876m, col 844m, drop 32m — 1:10k (1970) gives summit 875.4m, col 845.8m, drop 29.6m — 1:25k gives summit 875m, col 846m, drop 29m — OS Openspace vector map gives summit 876m — 1:50k gives summit 875m — 1:10560 (1902) gives col 846.7m (converted from 2778ft, Newlyn correction zero hereabouts) On the grounds that the drop is available to greater precision on the 1:10k map, Alan Dawson decided not to promote the hill to CT/Sim. It is unusual for a 1:10k map to give decimal heights, but there are some other instances on maps of similar age. In some cases they equate to imperial heights on 1:10560 (6") maps dated a few years earlier. That seems likely to be the case here as the contours are at non metric intervals, but in any case it would not make sense for OS to quote decimals unless the heights were levelled, as are most heights on old maps. Levelled heights are much more accurate than air heights (generally ±0.3m or better, cf. ±3.3m for air heights). However there is no guarantee that the summit and col locations are correct on any of these maps; the col area may well be a broad area of uneven peat hags. The height of nearby Cairn Ewen (hill 6232) is shown as 875m on the 1:10k and 1:25k maps, raising the possibility that its status should be switched with Carn na Criche. Geograph and the OS vector map show 874m, albeit in a slightly different location. The balance of probability therefore lies with Carn na Criche being the higher of the two. Beinn a'Chaorainn (663/665, 9C)Older 1:50000 maps show the South Top at 1050m, higher than the Munro/Marilyn at 1049m. Following enquiries in August 2001, the OS admitted that "something odd seems to have happened" and re-heighted both peaks. Both 1:25k and 1:50k maps now show the Munro/Marilyn as 1052m and the South Top as 1049m. However the large scale map on Geograph spots both summits at 1049m.The Saddle - Trig Point (686, 10A) and The Saddle (688, 10A)Hill 688 has always been the accepted summit of the Marilyn and the Munro. Munro's Tables give a height of 3317ft from 1891 to 1969, 3314ft in 1974 and 1010m from 1981 onwards. The trig point was a Munro Top between 1981 and 1990 and was listed as 1010m. There also appears a rather optimistic footnote from 1981 onwards "Observation on the ground gives the impression that the main summit of The Saddle is slightly higher that the Trig Point".The latest 1:25000 map gives 1010(1011) for the trig point and 1010 for the Munro, suggesting the trig point is higher. The 1011m figure clearly relates to the rocks 12m east of the trig pillar. The 1:10560 map gives 3314ft (1010.1m) for the trig point and 3315ft (1010.4m) for the Munro. The 1971 1:10000 map also gives 1010.1 for the trig point (a rare case of a decimal height on the metric map), in keeping with the flush bracket height of 1010.4. A photograph suggests the rocks are possibly 0.4-0.5m higher than the base of the pillar. The evidence therefore suggests the trig point has the higher summit, but with a considerable degree of uncertainty. The 1880 and 1904 1:10560 maps give 3316.6ft for the Munro, which converts to 1011.3m after adding 1.2ft to correct to the Newlyn vertical height datum. However this height is from the first geodetic survey and other heights in the locality, including this one, were subsequently revised downwards. Maps of similar vintage give Beinn Sgritheall as 3195.9ft and Sgurr nan Airgid as 2758.9ft. A calibration using the flush bracket heights from the OS database and assuming a FB height of 0.3m gives a revised height for the Munro of 1010.6 ± 0.3m. The summits are clearly very close in height and in view of the uncertainty the Marilyn has not been relocated. The Saddle North Top [1921: Sgurr na Creige] (706, 10A)The intended summit is uncertain. It is described in all editions of Munro's Tables as being half a mile north of the summit and about 3100ft in height (the first edition says over 3000ft). In the 1932 SMC Guidebook for The Western Highlands, though, Stob na Creige is described as being about 2850ft in height. A visit showed Stob na Creige to be a short undulating ridge with three small tops, the drop between each of these being no more than 5m or so. The furthest from the Munro is 877m or 2877ft and is 1.1km or 0.68 mile along the ridge from the summit. Its grid reference is NG 93358 14128. The next Hump is 930m or 3051ft at 0.7km or 0.44 mile from the summit, and the next after that is 938m or 3077ft at NG 93570 13715, 600m or 0.37 mile from the summit. There are two other significant bumps closer to the summit. We give the 930m feature in the database as it seems to best fit the description.Buidhe Bheinn (713/715, 10A) and Sgurr a'Bhac Chaolais (716, 10A)Munro's Tables lists Buidhe Bheinn as the Corbett from 1953 to 1974, Sgurr a'Bhac Chaolais from 1980 to 1990, and both hills as Corbetts in 1997 despite the drop between the two being less than 500 feet. However the location of Buidhe Bheinn was mistakenly assigned to the west top at NG956087 (hill 715), whose height is given as 879m on OS maps. The 2002 edition of the SMC guide to the Corbetts corrected the location to NG963090 (hill 713), and this GR is now shown in the SMC's online Table. Accordingly, we have classified hill 715 as a deleted Corbett.Following a survey which found Buidhe Bheinn to be 29cm higher, the SMC demoted Sgurr a'Bhac Chaolais on 3 November 2012. Thus Buidhe Bheinn is now the sole Corbett. The following day it was reported on the rhb group that the Marilyn pair had been de-twinned and the Marilyn moved from Sgurr a'Bhac Chaolais to Buidhe Bheinn. Beinn Aoidhdailean (4267, 10A) and Druim Fada point 614m (4270, 10A)New Graham Tops added since publication of the TACit booklet. Beinn Aoidhdailean was announced in TAC66 in 2005. Topographical mapping suggests the 607m spot in the col area on the 1:25k map is a protuberance and the ground drops 5m to the south.There is no 610m contour surrounding Druim Fada point 614m (originally Druim Fada, height 615m), which was added in 2007 on the basis of a drop of 32m measured by altimeter. The assignation of the cols to hills 4270 and 4272 is uncertain. The summit of hill 4272 is also 614m and the cols east and west of hill 4270 both have spot heights of 1909ft on old 6" maps. Sgurr nan Eugallt (744/745, 10B)The summit was moved in May 2001 following information from the OS, now shown on large scale maps. The SMC website and the current edition of the SMC Guide to the Corbetts give the new location.Sgurr nan Ceannaichean (900, 12A)Reclassified from Munro to Corbett following surveys carried out for The Munro Society. The news was announced at a press conference on 10 September 2009. Rab Anderson of the SMC was present and confirmed that Munro's Tables were changed with immediate effect. The SMC has made the following statement:Following confirmation that the Ordnance Survey will adopt the height information from the recent surveys carried out by the Munro Society, the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) can confirm that it will amend the official list of Munros (Munro's Tables®), which it maintains, to show that Sgurr nan Ceannaichean (913m) is now no longer a Munro. This change brings the number of separate summits in former SMC member Sir Hugh Munro's list of 3000 foot peaks to 283. Sgurr nan Ceannaichean will be added to Corbett's Tables which the SMC also maintains and all future SMC publications will show these changes. The SMC is grateful to the Munro Society for its efforts and for bringing this revised height information to its attention. Surveys of Ben Vane (915.8m), Beinn Teallach (914.6m) and Sgurr a'Choire-bheithe (913.3m) confirmed the status quo. Meall nan Damh (3319, 12A)New Marilyn Twin Top / twin Graham announced in May 2003. Twinned with Carn na Coinnich (hill 914), 4km away. Both summits should be climbed.Beinn Dearg (970, 13A)One of two 914m hills (the other being Foinaven) surveyed by CMCR on the initiative of The Munro Society. The definitive height is 913.7m, which equates to the old height of 2998ft.Beinn Bhan - A'Chioch (3256, 13B)Originally listed as a Corbett Top. It was demoted to Graham Top with the publication of the TACit booklet on the basis of a metric height of 761m at 1:25000.Beinn a'Chlaidheimh (1024, 14A)On 4 July 2011 the height of Beinn a'Chlaidheimh was measured by the survey team as part of a project for The Munro Society. A 3 hour dataset was sent to Ordnance Survey for processing who obtained a height of 913.96m. The Munro Society announced the result at a press conference on 9 August 2011. The new height indicated that Beinn a'Chlaidheimh should be reclassified from a Munro to a Corbett. In response the SMC said in a press release, The Scottish Mountaineering Club has been notified of these survey results and has undertaken to consider the implications for Munro's and Corbett's tables when the Ordnance Survey update its map of the area. OS Get-a-map has shown a 914m spot height since 29 November 2011. The SMC finally accepted the reclassification on 6 September 2012. The news was first reported in Grough.Beinn Dearg North Top (3267, 15A)Added to the Corbett Tops after publication of Corbett Tops and Corbetteers but demoted when the height was reduced to the 884m spot on the 1:25000 map. The 1:50000 map still shows 886m. The col height is taken from the 2811ft spot on the 1:10560 map although the map suggests a better estimate might be 855m, which would increase the drop to 29m.Beinn Tharsuinn - Sidhean a'Choin Bhain (3660, 15B)New Marilyn Twin Top / twin Graham announced in April 2006.Foinaven (1124, 16B)There had been speculation for many years that the height of this hill might reach 3000ft. Older 1:50000 maps show a spot height of 908m at NC316507, a conversion of an imperial height. It was eventually replaced by the 914m figure from the metric survey, though the spot is at NC315507 on the 1:10000 metric map. Anecdotally, the 1:25000 map briefly gave the height as 915m, later changed to 914m at NC316507. In response to an enquiry from the SMC in 1990, the OS confirmed the height as 914m but quoted a range of 913.8-915.2m including measurement error. The midpoint of this range is 914.5m, suggesting that the hill was more likely to be a Munro than a Corbett. The confusion was compounded by the spot height on the 1:25000 map being within the small 910m contour to the east of the ridge, rather than at the cairn inside the much larger 910m contour to the west which ground observation suggested was about 3m higher.In 2007 The Munro Society commissioned a survey of Foinaven. The summit height, ratified by the OS, was reported as 911.0m. The new height is shown on the current 1:25000 map. Knight's Peak (1261, 17B)Speculation that this peak does not reach 3000ft abounded soon after publication of the 1997 Munro's Tables, supported by Harvey's surveyed height of ca. 911m and a figure of 2994ft on the 1965 1:10560 sheet. In August 2001 the OS disclosed that it holds an unpublished air survey height of 912m for Knight's Peak. A spot height of 912m also appears in Land-Form PROFILE, the OS 1:10000 digital height product. For a number of years, therefore, it seemed that Knight's Peak did not merit the status of Munro Top.Then in August 2006 Ken Stewart obtained a new definitive height of 914.95 ± 0.5m from the OS, derived from high order photogrammetry and GPS. On enquiring about the methodology, the OS replied The photo model was controlled using sub 0.1m accuracy GPS (i.e. points on the ground were fixed that could be identified on the imagery - GPS was not taken to the summit). The accuracy of the imagery heighting using this method is quoted as ±0.5m for the Z (height) value. See also TAC69. Knight's Peak was finally accepted as a Murdo in 2009, but doubts remain. Uamh Bheag (1644, 26)The TACit booklet comments that the East Top at NN696119 (hill 7153), also 664m, looks lower and less significant than the main summit. As the drop between the two summits is below 30m it does not qualify as a Twin Top. Uamh Bheag was listed in Section 1 in RHB but moved to Section 26 and then to 26B in TACit.Meikle Millyea (1693/1694, 27B)The true summit of the Donald is at a point 400m SSW of the location given in Munro's Tables and is spotted 3m higher on the Harvey 1:40000 map. The TACit publications have given this location since 1995. We believe the SMC are aware of the situation and assume the location will be updated at the next revision of the Tables. We have retained the published location as a deletion. Anyone making the usual northern approach will pass over the former summit.Troweir Hill (1734, 27B) and Saugh Hill (5636, 27B)Saugh Hill became a twin Marilyn of 1734 Troweir Hill on 17 June 2011. Both hills have a spot height of 296m at 1:50k but The Relative Hills of Britain did not make Saugh Hill a twin because of the lack of a spot height at 1:25k. Large scale 19th century maps give levelled heights at the cairn and the tumulus with Saugh Hill 0.4m higher. We regard the data as insufficiently conclusive to relocate the Marilyn but following our recommendation, Alan Dawson has agreed to make the two summits twins as the drop between them exceeds 30m.Cairn Hill West Top/Hangingstone Hill (1846, 28B)Prior to v11.0 we listed the deleted Nuttall, Hangingstone Hill, as hill 2304. The grid reference for the summit, established by an Abney Level survey, is 70m SW of the fence junction and plots exactly on the England–Scotland border (from the OS Admin Meridian data). There was therefore no justification for listing the deleted Nuttall separately from the Donald Top. Accordingly, we transferred the deleted Nuttall to hill 1846 and declassified, and later orphaned, hill 2304. After an interval of over two years we reused number 2304 in v12. The summit is also the County Top of Roxburghshire.Craig Fach (2032, 30B) and Mynydd Graig Goch (2033, 30B)These hills, both with spot heights of 609m on OS maps, were surveyed on 11 August 2008 by John Barnard, Graham Jackson and Myrddyn Phillips in collaboration with Leica Geosystems. Craig Fach's Dewey status was confirmed but Mynydd Graig Goch was shown to be over 2000ft high, making the hill a Hewitt and Nuttall. The event is described in the press release. Many readers will be aware of the events that followed. The team had planned an announcement at Snowdonia Parks centre (Plas Tan-y-Bwlch) but had not achieved much success in getting the press to attend. Then the BBC got hold of the story and everything mushroomed, with coverage on Radio 4, BBC TV and ITV on Friday 19 September and in the national newspapers the following morning. The promotion of Mynydd Graig Goch to "mountain" status may have provided the whimsical note that captured the nation's interest, but a contributory factor might have been the relief afforded from the relentless stream of financial and economic bad news.Castell y Gwynt (3662, 30B) and Carnedd y Filiast North Top (2001, 30B)New Nuttalls adopted on 2 September 2007. Castell y Gwynt is a new 3000er. Details of the surveys can be found in Survey Reports.Mynydd y Cwm (2051, 30C)New Marilyn announced on 16 April 2009. The measured drop of 150.00 ± 0.2m sparked some debate as to whether the promotion was justified. However all hill lists, whether the authors recognise it or not, are based on the premise that a hill belongs if it has a 50% or greater probability of meeting the criterion.Pen y Bedw East and West Tops (3385/6, 30D)Dewey's original publication lists the west top, which has a spot height of 527m on the OS 1:25000 and 1:50000 maps. A survey by Myrddyn Phillips in 2004 using a spirit level estimated the east top to be 1m higher than the west top, or possibly a twin. The East Top was added to the database in 2004 but was not included in Michael Dewey's list dated November 2007.A differential GPS survey in November 2008 found the east top of Pen y Bedw to be 0.5m higher than the west top. The drop between the two tops is 23m. Accordingly, the east top (hill 3385) becomes the official Dewey and the west top (hill 3386) is deleted. Cadair Bronwen NE Top (2093, 30E)We had seen reports that the bwlch to summit height might be as little as 7m rather than the 15m required for a Nuttall. Using staff and automatic level, John Barnard and Graham Jackson obtained 'uphill' and 'downhill' estimates of 10.6m and 10.7m for the drop. The biggest component of the measurement error is the location of the exact position of the bwlch at SJ 8355 3495, but the authors were entirely confident that the drop is not greater than 11.5m. The hill was demoted on 19 August 2007 with a ceremony reported by the Nuttalls.Mynydd Ceiswyn (3431, 30F) and Domen-ddu (3466, 31B)Added to the original list of 500m summits (with Great Yarlside) by Michael Dewey, but challenged on the rhb group by Rob Woodall and others. These hills, together with Great Yarlside, were promoted on the basis of measurements on hand-held GPS units, which lack sufficient accuracy for this type of work. All three hills have since been shown by accurate levelling to lack the required drop. Details can be found in Survey Reports. A number of other Deweys, mostly hills added after publication of the original list, have been demoted after surveying. See the Dewey change register for a full list of changes.Rhiw Gwraidd (2196/2197, 31B)A levelling survey in 2006 was unable to resolve the summit location as the height difference was within the measurement error. A second survey in June 2010, using equipment capable of higher resolution, found the east top to be 7cm higher. Accordingly hill 2197, formerly an alternative summit mentioned in the rhb update sheet, is now the Marilyn. Hill 2196 has been renamed West Top.The 1:25000 map is misleading, as the summit is within the 440m contour ring 160m to the east of the easterly 442m spot. Fan Brycheiniog (2230/5603, 32A)The 1:25000 map shows two 802m heights 300m apart. The Nuttalls' book regards them as twin summits, while Terry Marsh claims the trig point is higher. The editorial team surveyed the hill on 13 September 2011 on an occasion to mark the 10th anniversary of the Database of British Hills. The northern summit, Twr y Fan Foel (hill 5603) is 0.75m higher than the trig point (hill 2230). The result has been accepted by the list authors, so the Marilyn, Hewitt and Nuttall move to hill 5603. Hill 2230 remains the Buxton & Lewis, Bridge and Trail 100 top.Mynydd y Grug (5273, 32C)Old maps show the summit within a small 1175ft contour (358m) close to a trig station. The natural summit is now completely covered by a large spoil heap which is in the process of being drained and landscaped. The summit of the tip lies within a 370m contour, and a 375m spot height is shown on the OS Openspace vector map. Version 12 of the database gave the latter height, but as pointed out by David Purchase, this is inconsistent with the hill's classification because it would make the summit higher than 2297 Mynydd Machen (362m), implying a reversal of the col positions and relocation of the Marilyn. Alan Dawson considered the evidence and decided that the landscaping was insufficiently complete for the spoil heap to count as a hill. Accordingly, he reported on the rhb group that the Marilyn would remain Mynydd Machen for the time being. The majority of comments on the rhb group supported this decision. Photographs of the summit area can be viewed on www.hill-summitareas.org.uk and on Geograph.Version 2 of Summits and Cols decrees that for an unfinished or incompletely landscaped artificial hill, a point on the perimeter of the tip is chosen to represent the summit. Given the vegetation on the slopes, the highest natural ground would probably be difficult if not impossible to ascertain on the ground. The choice of location is of some importance because if the height were below 353m the hill would cease to qualify as a Hump. After comparing the modern 1:25k map with the 1951 1:25k map, we have chosen a point at ST 1755 9075 at which the old path from the west has been diverted northwards to join the bridleway. It lies just below the 360m contour on the modern map. However the spoil heap is steep-sided and a height of c.355m is more consistent with the old map. The path is probably lower than than the trig point which is shown as 1171ft (357m) on the 1961 1" map. Note that contours are accurate to ±5m whereas the trig height should be accurate to better than 1m. Garth Hill (7675, 32C)Old large scale maps give a trig height of 848.5ft for the summit, and a levelled height of 514ft near the col. Smaller scale imperial maps are consistent in giving 849ft, which became 259m on early 1:50000 maps. Metric maps give an air height of 257m for the summit, and a height of 157m further from the col. Because levelled heights are much more accurate than air heights, and the 514ft spot is closer to the col, we regard the old maps as giving the best estimate of drop. An estimated col height of 515-516ft would give a drop of 101-102m. We have taken a conservative view by retaining the col height at 158m and increasing the summit height to 259m. The correction to the Newlyn vertical height datum is -0.3ft.Housedon Hill (2318, 33)RHB gives the north top, which has a 267m spot height on the 1:50000 map strangely placed on a 260m contour. This probably originates from a 876.9ft surveyed height on the 1866 1:10560 map but the spot is misplaced on the current map as the old map marks it on the boundary. The south top has a 266m air height on the 1:25000 map. Ground observations by George Gradwell with an Abney level found that the northern top lies near the edge of the wood and is marked by a small cairn. He also determined the south top to be marginally higher than the north top. A more detailed Abney Level survey by John Barnard and Graham Jackson found the south top to be 1m higher.Armboth Fell (2483/3761, 34B)Wainwright and Birkett give different locations for their respective summits on Armboth Fell. The Birkett summit is a large rock outcrop with a small cairn at the 479m spot height (NY 29677 15967). The Wainwright summit is a rock and heather outcrop at NY 29584 15740. Photograph 1 shows this summit alongside Wainwright's sketch. The cairn has been reduced to a mere handful of stones and is no longer visible from below. Supporting evidence for the location of Wainwright's summit is provided by photograph 2 which shows the "shepherd's cairn on a rock" alongside Wainwright's sketch. This can be found on a rocky outcrop at NY 29631 15534, which is almost exactly a furlong south of the Wainwright summit cairn. Again, the cairn on this boulder has been removed or destroyed. The prominence east of north mentioned in Wainwright's summit description is probably the 479m spot height.Honister Crag (3320, 34B)The first new English Nuttall since the original publication, promoted in November 2004. The drop is 67ft (20m). One other English Nuttall has been added, Birks Fell.Wether Hill (2557/2927, 34C)Formerly the Nuttalls listed the north top (hill 2557), which is the Wainwright and Birkett summit. Several visitors to Wether Hill have noted that the south top (hill 2927 and the Buxton & Lewis summit) appears to be the higher and this is supported by modern and old maps. The current 1:50k OS map shows a large 670m ring contour on the south top and a 670m spot height with no ring contour on the north top. The 1:25k map has a large ring contour on the south top and a small 670m ring contour on the north top. The 1863, 1899 and 1919 1:10560 maps have a 2203.0ft (671.4m) benchmark at the boundary stone on the north top (although this is not quite at the summit), while the 1899, 1919 and 1956 1:10560 maps have a 2211ft (674m) spot height on the south top, about 70m south of the summit. Both heights also appear on the 1915 1:2500 map, as does a 2186ft spot height (666m) which is a plausible candidate for the col. These old levelled heights are shown superimposed on the 1:25k map; the arrow shows the position of the 10-figure grid reference formerly in the database (it was replaced in v12.1 by NY45461630 20m SSW following the Abney survey). A detailed survey by Jim Bloomer with an Abney Level estimated the south top as 3-4m higher than the north top, supporting the mapping. The Nuttalls announced the move on 7 March 2012.Baystones [Wansfell] (2607/3838, 34C)This hill has see-sawed in status. The original RHB publication (1992) lists Baystones as a Marilyn at NY403052 on the north side of the wall (hill 3838). All OS maps show a spot height of 487m at this point. It was demoted in 1995 when the drop was revised to 149m. Baystones was reinstated in May 2001 with relocation to NY403051 on the south side of the wall (hill 2607) following information from the OS that suggested its height might be 488m. We have now surveyed the hill by differential GPS and find the summit height to be 486.9m and the drop 147.7m. The second demotion of Baystones was announced on 11 Feb 2010. The northern summit was estimated as 0.83m lower by optical levelling and therefore 486.1m in height.Prior to v11 we did not list the two summits separately. Hill 3838 was added to distinguish the location of the Birkett from the Wainwright and (sub)Marilyn. Wallow Crag [nameless - Naddle Horseshoe 2] (3329, 34C)The location indicated on Wainwright's sketchmap does not match the route description, which in fact follows the ridge to Wallow Crag. There is no doubt of the correct summit as the sketch of the cairn on p.227 of The Outlying Fells of Lakeland matches the photograph on p.202 of Birkett's The Complete Lakeland Fells (the original photo is in colour but the scan has been reproduced in b/w to match Wainwright's sketch). The 410m contour ring at NY497148 is at best 412 metres high and is nothing more than a heathery mound that has clearly never had a cairn on it. Birkett's location is verified in a photograph of Wallow Crag taken by George Gradwell.Great Yarlside (3661/2575, 34C)Added to the Deweys in 2005 on the basis of measurements on a hand-held GPS unit, but deleted on 16 November 2011 after a levelling survey demonstrated that the hill lacks the required 30m of ascent. The Wainwright Outlying Fell is hill 2575, close to a 19th century circular trig station. The height was mistakenly given on OS maps as 1986ft (605m) at one time, probably a transcription error as it was previously 1936ft, leading Wainwright to choose that location.Arnside Knott (3321, 34D)New Marilyn reported in Marhofn 133. Formerly unlisted. A survey in October 2010 found the drop to be 150.8 ± 0.4m. The critical measurement is the height of the col, which is in a railway cutting. The survey of the col is recorded in a video.nameless (Top o'Selside - Brock Barrow) (3335, 34D)Wainwright mistakenly applies the label 748' a nameless summit (p.92 of The Outlying Fells of Lakeland) to the square cairn at SD 29814 89815, height 221m (725ft). A survey by Jim Bloomer and George Gradwell with an Abney level established that the true summit, a 229m spot height on OS maps, is a rock outcrop at SD 29885 89889. The square cairn was probably the highest point on Wainwright's route over the fell to a second cairn at SD 29809 90026 (sketch on p.94). We estimate the second cairn (within a small 700ft contour on the 1:10560 map) to be at least 5m lower than the square cairn and yet Wainwright declares it to be at approximately 730ft, supporting our conclusion that he believed the square cairn to be at the 748ft spot. The positions of the two cairns and the true summit are shown on this map and photograph.Burnhope Seat (2714, 35A)The Nuttalls give the summit as the trig point at NY788375 (746m). They reported visiting the cairned point but did not think it was higher. A survey by Abney level confirms our location, approximately 100m west of the 747m spot height on the OS 1:50000 map. The trig point is the historic County Top of Durham.Lovely Seat (2734, 35A)Added to the Marilyns in November 1995 but deleted in May 2010 after a survey revealed the drop to be 149.1m. The demotion came too late to appear in the latest RHB update sheet.Thack Moor (2770, 35A)The summit is 15m east of a trig point whose height is given on maps as 609m. A survey in August 2012, in which 2 hours of data was collected by our Leica 530 differential GPS system, obtained a result of 609.64m. On the Ordnance Survey's recommendation, a further survey was conducted in March 2013 in which 4 hours of data was collected using our recently acquired Leica GS15 system. This dataset gave a height of 609.62m. The data were sent to Ordnance Survey who processed them through their own software and obtained 609.62m from both datasets. Hence Thack Moor exceeds 2000ft by 2cm, or less than an inch. OS have accepted the result and indicated that the summit height on the map will be shown as 610m. The Nuttalls, Alan Dawson and Michael Dewey also accepted the result, thereby promoting the hill to Hewitt and Nuttall and deleting it from the Deweys. The news was announced by Grough on 3 April 2013. For further details see the survey report.This is the exact converse of the result for Calf Top, another hill with a summit close to a 609m trig point where 6 hours of data collected on two surveys gave a height of 609.58m, 2cm below 2000ft. Hand Lake (3608, 35A) and Linghaw (3609, 35A)Added to Michael Dewey's published list after discovery of tiny 500m contours on the 1:25000 map. Linghaw was subsequently demoted on 22 October 2010 after a survey revealed the height to be 498.8m, and Hand Lake on 25 November 2010 after the height had been measured as 499.6m. Contours on OS maps at 10m spacing are stated by the OS to be accurate to ±5m. Marginal Deweys have been a target of our surveying team since 2007, which has resulted in several changes to the list. For a complete list of changes see the Dewey change register.Calf Top (2797, 35B)Calf Top, a Dewey in the Yorkshire Dales, has been surveyed a total of three times by G&J Surveys. The estimated height is 609.58 ± 0.1m. As this is below 609.6m, the probability that the hill exceeds 2000ft is less than 50%, albeit marginally. Hence the hill does not become a Nuttall and Hewitt. However the latest OS maps show the rounded figure of 610m, giving the impression that Calf Top is a new 2000ft mountain. Alan Dawson, John Nuttall and Michael Dewey were consulted and all were content for the hill to retain its current status. For a summary of the surveys and the rationale for preserving the status quo, see Is Calf Top a new 2000ft mountain?. Because of the margin of error there remains a significant possibility that the hill exceeds 2000ft in reality, so baggers seeking assurance that they have ascended all English hills over 2000ft should climb the hill.Birks Fell (2799, 35B)This hill has a history. Early lists of the English 2000s included Birks Fell on the basis of the 610m spot height at SD918763 on 1:50000 Landranger and earlier imperial maps. Later metric maps at 1:10000 and 1:25000 scale gave a 608m spot height at SD916764 instead. This caused the hill to be dropped from subsequent lists, and for the Marilyn to be moved to Horse Head Moor. The situation was confused by the continued appearance of the 610m spot on 1:50000 maps (known to be a metric conversion of an older imperial height) and a stream of visitors opining that the new 608m spot was not at the highest point. The OS was contacted but merely confirmed 608m as the highest recorded point on the metric contour document.The impasse was resolved when John Barnard and Graham Jackson surveyed the hill using a precision optical level. A follow-up survey confirmed their finding that the hill was definitely above 2000 feet, their estimate being 610.4 ± 0.2m or between 2002 and 2003ft. Details of both surveys can be read in Survey Reports. This information was relayed to interested parties. Subsequently the Nuttalls obtained a revised figure of 2001ft at SD919764 from the OS (from a 1920 levelling survey) which they indicated will appear on the next update of the 1:25000 Explorer. The OS later (19 Dec 2007) indicated that the new 610m spot will be shown at SD 9186 7637, a little to the south west of the cairn and in agreement with the 1:50000 map. However they appear to have erred in putting the 610m spot at SD916763 on the latest 1:25000 map, approximately the same position as the previous 608m spot. Thorpe Fell Top (2803, 35B) and Cracoe Fell (3682, 35B)Speculation that Cracoe Fell was higher than Thorpe Fell Top was finally put to rest following two line surveys by John Barnard and Graham Jackson in May 2008. Cracoe Fell is 1.8m higher.Raw Head (2828, 36)Demoted to SubMarilyn after extensive surveying showed it to have a drop of 148.5m. Alan Dawson accepted the change on 16 April 2009, some weeks after the survey results, in an announcement on the rhb group. Independent data from digital elevation models dismiss any real possibility that the col for Raw Head might lie in an area outside the surveyed region.Viking Way (5466, 37)The historic county top of Lincolnshire (Parts of Kesteven) lies on an ancient road probably dating from the Bronze Age, which follows the county boundary with Leicestershire hereabouts. In the 18th century it became used as a drove road, when it became known as Sewestern Drift or The Drift, the latter name being shown on maps. The ancient road forms part of the Viking Way, a modern long distance footpath.The man-made road has been raised above the level of the surrounding land, at least in parts. The contouring on the modern map suggests two possible locations for the natural summit (i.e. before the building of the road), each within a 150m contour. The southern location is at SK889236 and the northern at SK851310. A site visit confirmed the impression from photographs that at the southern location, 40m south of the crossroads, the road lies on a shallow embankment c.40m wide at the base and perhaps 2m high. The 10-figure grid reference in the database is for the locally highest point, determined by Abney Level as c.0.5m higher than the crossroads. The 1976 1:2500 map has a ground height of 150.8m at the crossroads (151m on the 1983 1:10000 map and on Geograph mapping); the 1888 1:2500 map has a 495ft spot height at the crossroads and a picket benchmark at 495.2ft at the south corner of the wood. Large scale maps show that further south the embankment rises. The 1976 1:2500 map gives two 152.3m spot heights at SK 8892 2333 and SK 8889 2309. The latter location has a 152m spot on the 1983 1:10000 map and on Geograph mapping and is coincident with the locally highest ground determined by Abney Level. However the ground falls away more steeply on both sides of the road than to the north, perhaps 4m vertically to the east and 3m to the west. The original ground beneath the embankment is therefore probably lower than at the location 40m south of the crossroads, as suggested by the contouring. Our Summits and Cols protocol decrees that a man-made feature can only be adopted as the summit when it overlies the natural summit. We have therefore discounted the 152.3m location as a candidate for the summit of the County Top. We have not visited the northern summit, for which there are no spot heights on old or current maps. However the natural summit could well be at this location, particularly if the contour at the southern summit includes the embankment. Hence we recommend that both summits are visited. Milk Hill (2872, 39)Briefly acquired Marilyn status in 1997 when the TACit Table The Hewitts and Marilyns of England erroneously listed it in Section 42. A survey by John Barnard, Graham Jackson and Myrddyn Phillips on 20 April 2009 confirmed the hill's status as both subMarilyn and the highest point of Wiltshire, being 0.25m higher than nearby Tan Hill. The OS confirmed these findings in their own survey. The survey was sponsored by the BBC and presented in a Countryfile programme on 23 August.Botley Hill (2910/3686, 42)Several walkers queried the original location, suggesting that there was higher ground within the large 265m contour to the west of the trig point. The 1" New Popular Edition map gives a spot height of 882ft and on the strength of this evidence Alan Dawson announced a relocation in June 2008. John Barnard and Mark Smith carried out a line survey on 28 July 2008 which confirmed that the highest natural ground is at TQ 38708 55182 around the base of the water tower compound, ca. 3 metres higher than the trig point flush bracket.Crocknasmug (20445, 45A) and Crockaulin (20886, 45A)The original TACit publication (1997) listed Crocknasmug as the 328m Marilyn. Clements' note 189 states "328m given here is from OS4 (OSNI); only a 322m spot height on OS3 (Republic) at C656438. Were this point the summit, then Crockaulin, 325m, at C624420 would become the Marilyn". The 2009 digital OSNI mapping now duplicates the OSi 322 spot. This replacement of the old 328m height with a nearby 322m spot height, combined with a visit to both sites, led to the conclusion that Crockaulin (3.8km SW) was probably higher. In 2012 a survey with a Trimble GeoXH6000 gave Crocknasmug 328m and Crockaulin (ground 200m N of trig) 326m. Consequently we have reinstated Crocknasmug as the Marilyn.Alderney Airport, NE perimeter (7816, 57)The 1966 1:10560 map (still available) gives two 294ft spot heights near the eastern and western edges of a wide 290ft contour. The eastern spot, named "Le Ronde But" (Le Ronde Butt on the States of Guernsey Official Map) also appears on the Admiralty chart. The other 294ft spot is 350m west near Le Callier. There is a much smaller 290ft contour NE of the airport runways that corresponds to the small 90m contour on the States of Guernsey Official Map. This is the location we give in the database. The States of Guernsey Official Map gives no other 90m contour, and only an 85m contour encircling the other locations. Note that the 1:12500 International Travel Map uses the old UTM30 grid, as does the 1:10560 map.The States of Guernsey Official Map (2010) has no spot heights. Les Platons, Jersey (7817, 57)Our data are taken from the 1969 Directorate of Military Survey map, which shows a 446ft spot at Les Platons labelled "Highest Point". This location is also claimed to be the highest in Jersey in current tourist literature, including a cycling map. The Ordnance Survey published an Official Leisure map in 1981 based mainly on earlier surveys (not by the OS) supplemented by aerial photography flown by the OS in April 1980. The 1981 map has no "highest point" but spot heights make it clear that the location described is >435ft. The current 1:25000 Official Leisure Map of Jersey (revised 2011) gives a height of 134m on La Rue des Platons to the south.Both imperial maps show a 460ft contour ring NE of Les Platons centred at WV658560 on the old UTM grid system. The current map has a 140m contour here, centred on WV657557 on the new UTM30 grid. The 1969 map gives a spot height of 376ft (115m) within this contour; the other maps have just the contour ring. However the 1969 map has colour-coded topographical shading and there is only one 400ft contour on Jersey. Within that contour, the next highest spot after Les Platons is 436.7ft at WV662553. It seems clear that that the 460ft/140m contour is actually 360ft/110m and a labelling error in the early map has been propagated in modern maps. This may be the source of the 143m "unnamed location" quoted in the CIA World Factbook and reproduced in other web pages, which some articles have subsequently associated with Les Platons. The Access databaseThe Access 2000 database, which can be used with any later version of Access, has a fully relational structure. We have discontinued the parallel non-relational version that was offered up to version 11. You do not need to own a copy of Microsoft Access in order to use the database, as you can install a free runtime version provided you have Windows XP Service Pack 2 or a later version of Windows. See downloads for instructions.The Hills table is at the core of the database. Classification (hill list) and Area information are in separate tables, with "link" tables to identify the Classes and Areas to which a hill belongs. You do not have to be knowledgeable about relational databases to use it. Viewing hill data, and logging your ascents, are simplified by the provision of a number of forms and screens. The Userlog facility allows you to record date climbed and other details of the ascent. There is a User table that allows multiple users to share the same copy of the database, each maintaining separate logs. Users pursuing second or subsequent rounds will find it helpful to assign separate user names to each round in order to monitor their totals for the repeat rounds. On opening the database you are presented with a Welcome screen, which is the start point for all the facilities provided by the database. It provides the following options.
Uploading grid references to a GPSGrid references from the database may be uploaded to a GPS unit using appropriate software. We are aware of three websites that offer such software: GPS Utility, G7toWin, and Oziexplorer. GPS Utility and Oziexplorer are commercial packages but evaluation copies can be downloaded free of charge. G7toWin is freeware. We have evaluated GPS Utility and G7toWin. We understand that Anquet Maps and Memory-Map also have facilities for importing grid references but we have not investigated these.Instructions for GPS UtilityDownload both GPS Utility and GPSU File Converter. The latter converts files with a csv extension to text files that open in GPS Utility. The steps involved in the process of uploading a file to a GPS are as follows.
Setting up GPSU File ConverterOpen the application and enter the following information:
Setting up GPS Utility
Note that it is the unique Hill Number that is transferred to the GPS in our test file and not the Hill Name. The Garmin eTrex only accepts six characters for a waypoint name and most hill names are much longer than this. Unique Hill Numbers currently run from 1–21167 and so are all less than six characters in length. When starting a walk, the appropriate Hill Number will be visible in MapView (when set to the appropriate scale) on the eTrex and the user will be able to identify the correct hill to select in GOTO when approaching the summit area. One of the authors has used a dataset of twenty hills uploaded to a Garmin eTrex and successfully navigated to all of them in this way. Whilst the hill name is a useful identifier in the csv file, it is not necessary once the whole dataset is in the GPS. However if the user prefers to abbreviate hill names and use these as the ID, this is easily accommodated by GPS Utility. From our experience of field testing, the ten-figure grid references in the database should take the user to within 10m of the target feature, and often 4m or less. The database is available in csv format from the downloads page and it is this version we recommend you use to create your own files for uploading to your GPS. We are grateful to Darren Parker who first kindled our interest in uploading ten-figure grid references from the database to a GPS unit We would welcome your comments. Recreating the original listsMicrosoft Access users can easily extract individual lists, including subsets, using the search facility. Users of the Excel or text versions of the database can recreate many of the original lists by sorting on the relevant category field followed by Area (for Donalds, Nuttalls and Wainwrights), Section (Corbetts, Corbett Tops and Graham Tops), or _Section (for The Relative Hills of Britain and the earlier TACit Tables, which do not subdivide sections 5, 6, 8 and 26). In Excel, the easiest way of selecting hills belonging to a particular category is to use the Autofilter facility in the Data menu. This is already set up in the file.We have not provided a mechanism for ordering the hills within each Area or Section to match the original printed list as it would take much effort to produce and maintain, and most publications have not been kept up to date with promotions and deletions. For Marilyns and Grahams, the hill order in RHB/TACit can be reproduced approximately by further sorting by descending height. User feedback and database enhancementsWe welcome users' suggestions for enhancing the database, and of course reports of errors.We are particularly keen to receive 10 figure GPS measurements from readers. Please see under 10 Figure Grid References for the information we need. The survey fundThe fund was set up in response to offers from a number of users to contribute to the costs of maintaining the database. It is managed by John Barnard and Graham Jackson and is used mainly to support our surveying activity. The cost of equipment and maintenance is considerable and was originally borne entirely by the editors.Hill surveying is a core activity of the DoBIH editorial team that enables us to provide accurate data on hills where height, drop or location are critical. Our surveys are carried out to professional standards and our data are accepted by Ordnance Survey. Hills where OS have adopted new summit heights supplied by the survey team include Sgurr nan Ceannaichean, Beinn a'Chlaidheimh, Beinn Dearg Mor, Glyder Fawr, Tryfan, Mynydd Graig Goch, Calf Top and Thack Moor. Our equipment comprises a Leica GS15 survey-grade GPS capable of measuring height to 5cm, a Leica NA730 automatic x30 telescopic level, a Leica Runner automatic x20 telescopic level, a 1m surveyor's staff extendable to 5m, three tripods and a Leica Disto A8 for measuring distance and angles. This suite of equipment enables us to determine absolute height and drop, usually to better than 0.2m, in almost any terrain. We have received several donations from supporters and are very grateful to everyone who has helped us. Anyone wishing to support the fund can do so via the PayPal link or by contacting one of the editors. Our "to do" list of candidate hills for surveying is available in Excel and can be forwarded on request. If you have suggestions for hills to survey please forward these to John Barnard (see under Submitting 10-figure grid references for John's email address). AcknowledgementsWe thank Alan Dawson for data and for responding to many queries; Rob Woodall for his files on the rhb group and particularly his work on the British 500m hills; Geoff Crowder for assisting with the revision of the Wainwright Outlying Fells; David Purchase for his work on the Donald Deweys and Channel Islands hills and his input into the Dewey change register; Dave Marshall for assisting with our ongoing data review; Myrddyn Phillips for his listing of the Irish 500s and other contributions to hill data; Tony Hartry for providing county names of over 5,000 hills; Gordon Adshead for checking the first version of the database; Bernie Hughes and David White for supplying data for v11; John Kirk for comparing our listing of P20 hills with his and bringing omissions to our notice; all those who responded to the user surveys in 2008 and 2010; and many other correspondents who reported errors and suggested improvements.George Gradwell made a considerable contribution to the database over a period of more than four years. We express our appreciation for all his work on the editorial team. We are grateful to the following walkers for contributing 10-figure GPS readings to the database: Alan & Kathy Duval, Alasdair Alexander, Alex Barbour, Andrew Brown, Andrew Round, Andy Lindley, Andrew West, Anthony Duffield, Anton Ciritis, Bengt Karlsson, Bernie Hughes, Bert Barnett, Bill Morden, Brian Diggle, Carolyn Hastings, Charlie Scrimgeour, Chris Bienkowski, Chris Derrick, Chris Watson, Chris Walker, Colin MacKenzie, Conrad Izatt, Dale Wilson, Darren Groutage, David Baird, David Brown, David Claymore, David Gradwell, David Purchase, David Williams, David White, Del Wilson, Dennis Foster, Derek Blackburn, Derek Norry, Derek Snaith, Des Taylor, Douglas Law, Gareth Solomon, George Gradwell, Grant Bain, Henry Marston, Ian Baines, Ian Henderson, Ken Wood, Iain Macaulay, Iain Rudkin, Idwal Jones, Jim Coombes, Jonathan Glew, John Edwards, John Smith, Judy Catterall, Laurence Rudkin, Lindsay Boyd, Lionel Bidwell, Liz Nicholas, Lyndon Day, Malcolm Ratcliffe, Mark Trengove, Martin Richardson, Martin Roberts, Michael Earnshaw, Michael Elcock, Mick Moore, Mike Mason, Mike Scott, Neil McVicar, Peter & Liz Hastie, Paul Kingston, Paul Ward, Paul Woodcock, Pete Fairhurst, Pete & Barbara Nelson, Peter Cottam, Phil Catterall, Phil Sidwell, Richard Cooper, Richard Tibbetts, Richard Webb, Robert Davies, Robert Poole, Rob Woodall, Ross Drummond, Roy Davidson, Sandra Morrison, Stephen Dawson, Steve Smith, Stuart Joynson, Ted Richards, Toby Thurston, Tom Levell, Tony Hartry, Tony Jenkins, Tony Watson and Tuco Ramirez. We are indebted to the authors of the published lists, without whose efforts this database would not have come into being: the SMC, Alan Dawson, John and Anne Nuttall, Michael Dewey, Paddy Dillon, Clem Clements, Simon Stewart, Chris Buxton and Gwyn Lewis, Bill Birkett and Alfred Wainwright. Their publications are well worth obtaining as they make stimulating reading and contain far more information on the lists than is given in this database. Updated 30 Apr 2013 |
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