Place Fell Database of British and Irish Hills

These are a few sites that may interest users of the DoBIH. Most apps have been evaluated by the editorial team.

General resources
Apps
  • Hill Lists
    Graham Haley's iPhone app. Generally uses the latest DoBIH release. Now includes the Tumps.
  • British Hills
    Android app developed by Adam Coles. Uses DoBIH v15.3.
  • National Parks offline maps
    Range of iOS apps covering all the National Parks and some other areas. Offline OS mapping down to a nominal 1:10k scale with DoBIH hill data and other functionality.
  • Peak Scanner
    Uses DoBIH data together with the GPS, magnetometer and gyroscope functions in the phone to produce an Augmented Reality view, allowing you to find out about the hills around you by pointing your phone at them. iOS and Android versions.
Mapping
Britain
  • Geograph
    Invaluable source of mapping at 1:250k, 1:50k and 1:25k scales. The grid ref field allows 6, 8 and 10 figure GRs with or without spaces. Click inside the map to obtain a zoomable map showing the different scales, with a pin located at your grid reference. The parent page displays photographs within the 1km grid square. Previous feeds offered a larger scale and 5m contours. The Interactive Coverage Map (v4) is not useful except perhaps for investigating photo locations. Links are given in DoBIH and Hill Bagging.
  • DataMapWales
    Interactive OS maps for the whole of Britain with 5m contours at certain zoom levels. Probably based on the OS Terrain 5 digital product; photogrammetry differs from Geograph and paper maps. The search box accepts xcoord/ycoord and lat/long when specifying SEARCH BY COORDINATES (click on the icon at the edge of the search box for the menu). Clicking on the small map square (bottom left) offers other displays including satellite imagery. Other layers are available within Wales via the menus.
  • Scotlis
    Gives OS mapping in Scotland with 5m contours at high zoom levels identical to DataMapWales. Append xcoord/ycoord to the URL to navigate directly to a particular location.
  • OS Maps
    Online topographical resource. A grid reference can be entered in the search box (top left). Similar photogrammetry to the above resources but offers only 10m contours; probably based on the OS Terrain 50 digital product. A previous incarnation offered 5m contours. The "Grid Ref" tool places a cursor in the centre of the map and displays the grid reference at that location. Links are given in Hill Bagging.
  • Magic Maps
    Interactive OS maps with 10m contours overlaid with geographical, environmental or administrative information. "Administrative Geographies" is useful for pinpointing boundaries for County Tops. The decimal ground heights on roads etc. are identical to those shown on DataMapWales at the same scale. The 1:10k air heights in the previous feed have disappeared. Links are given on Hill Bagging.
  • OS OpenData
    Source of free geospatial data.
  • National Library of Scotland
    Best source of historic mapping at 1:10560 (6 inch) and 1:63360 (1 inch) scales, covering the whole of Britain. Also offers 1:2500 (25 inch) maps in Scotland and 1:25000 in England and Wales. Coverage of England and Wales at 1:2500 and larger scales is progressing. Post-war 1:10560 and larger scale maps are gradually being added as Crown Copyright expires (50 years past publication date); those from the 1960s onwards are generally from the National Grid Survey. The Side-by-Side view shows the extent of LIDAR coverage, though it can take a while to bring up to date following data releases. High quality reproductions, fully zoomable. Links for individual hills are given in Hill Bagging.
  • Where's the path
    OS and satellite mapping side by side, or two OS maps, with choice of modern 1:50k and old 1" OS maps. It defaults to the latter after the allocated number of 1:50k map tiles per day has been reached.
  • Grid Reference Finder
    Gives a Google Map from a grid reference, OS and Bing maps, and where applicable Google Streetview. Outputs lat/long and postcode, which are also available as inputs.
  • Datum height differences
    Useful for converting pre-1921 surveyed heights on old maps from Liverpool Dock to the Newlyn datum.
  • TrigpointingUK
    Best source of flush bracket heights and photos of trig pillars
LIDAR Irish Republic
  • MountainViews
    Gives OpenStreetMap mapping overlaid with MountainViews hills and heights.
  • EastWest Mapping
    High quality 1:25000 and 1:20000 maps in mostly prime walking areas. The most detailed maps available. Also available on the Hiiker Pro+ phone app for iOS and Android. Derived from Bluesky surveys.
  • Geograph
    Gives OpenStreetMap mapping with some photographs. The Coverage Map offers historic half-inch mapping.
  • Historic Environment Viewer
    Historic 6" and 25" maps from the 19th century OS survey. The coordinates icon accepts xcoord, ycoord in Irish National Grid. The OSi site also offers these maps but is less easy to use.
  • Irish Townland and Historical Map Viewer
    Historic 6" and 25" maps. Does not accept coordinates input.
  • Sabre maps
    Offers a few half inch maps. It used to have War Office maps of Ireland but these have disappeared.
LIDAR
  • Open Topographic Data Viewer
    LIDAR datasets from several sources brought together by The Geological Survey of Ireland. Currently no coverage of upland areas.
Northern Ireland
  • PRONI Historical Maps Viewer
    Current and historical OSNI maps. For current 1:50k and 1:10k maps, click on the Basemap Gallery (first icon, top right of screen). For 1:10k metric maps of 1957-1986 vintage and historical 6 inch maps, click on "Layer list" (second icon). Maps will only display at certain zoom scales; click inside the map and use the +/- buttons at top left.
  • NIEA Map Viewer
    Used to offer OSNI 1:50k and historic 6" maps of Northern Ireland, but these have disappeared. Link retained in case they reappear.
Communities and organisations
  • The Relative Hills of Britain
    Comprehensive resource and focus for the RHB community.
  • The Tump Forum
    Resource for Tump baggers. Summary changes to the lists on Hill Bagging are announced here. Also covers Simms and Dodds. Members can opt for a daily digest.
  • Pedantic Publications
    Forum for discussion of Marilyns, Humps, and other matters. Replaced the defunct Yahoo rhb group in December 2020. Members can opt for a daily digest.
  • Relative Hills Society
    Society for baggers of metric lists in Britain and abroad. The magazine Relative Matters (not available online) has taken over from Marhofn, whose last issue was in 2016.
  • Relative Hills of Britain Facebook group. Popular group focused on relative hill bagging. Focused on Marilyns, Humps and Tumps but not confined to those categories. Many postings share photos and experiences on the hills. Other Facebook groups titled The Tumps, Island Bagging, Climbing the Birkett, Synge and LAMPs of the Lake District, cater for those specific categories.
  • MountainViews
    Long established site with an online community and resources for the Irish hillwalker. Run by a committee with whom we share data and surveying expertise.
  • The Munro Society
    Society open to Munro "compleaters". One of its early objectives was to measure the heights of marginal qualifiers on Munro's list, for which it commissioned surveys by the DoBIH survey team (G&J Surveys). This resulted in Sgurr nan Ceannaichean and Beinn a' Chlaidheimh being reclassified as Corbetts, and Knight's Peak deleted from the Munro Tops. An account is given in the book Scaling the Heights.

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