Lists of mountains and hills in the British Isles

Highest mountains in the British Isles

The mountains and hills of the British Isles are categorised into various lists based on different combinations of elevation, prominence, and other criteria such as isolation. These lists are used for peak bagging, whereby hillwalkers attempt to reach all the summits on a given list, the oldest being the 282 Munros in Scotland, created in 1891. A height above 2,000 ft, or more latterly 610 m, is considered necessary to be classified as a mountain – as opposed to a hill – in the British Isles. With the exception of Munros, all the lists require a prominence above A prominence of between (e. g. some Nuttalls and Vandeleur Lynams), does not meet the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation (UIAA) definition of an "independent peak", which is a threshold over Most lists consider a prominence between as a "top" (e. g. many Hewitts and Simms). Marilyns, meanwhile, have a prominence above , with no additional height threshold. They range from small hills to the largest mountains. Prominences above , meet the P600 (the "Majors") classification, which is the UIAA international classification of a "major" mountain.

There is no worldwide consensus on the definition of mountain versus a hill, but in Great Britain and Ireland it is usually taken to be any summit with an elevation of at least 2,000 feet (or 610 metres). The UK government legally defines mountain land as that over for the purposes of freedom of access. When Calf Top in Cumbria was re surveyed in 2016 and confirmed to be 6 millimetres above the 609.6 m threshold for a 2,000 ft peak, the Ordnance Survey described Calf Top as England's "last mountain". Regardless of the technical definition of a mountain, cultural norms also feature, with mountains in Scotland being frequently referred to as hills irrespective of their height; examples being the Cuillin Hills and the Torridon Hills. In 1994, the UIAA stated that for a "peak" to be independent (and not a sub peak), it needed a prominence over , and a "mountain" had to have a prominence above
Unlike the single measurement of elevation, prominence requires the measurement of all contours around the peak and is therefore subject to greater revision over time, and thus classification lists based on prominence are subject to change. Some definitions use an imperial measurement for height, but a metric measurement for the topological prominence (e. g. Murdos, Hewitts, and Nuttalls.

The Database of British and Irish Hills (DoBIH) was created in 2001 "with the intention of providing a comprehensive, up to date resource for British hillwalkers". It is maintained by a team of seven editors, and is described by the Long Distance Walkers Association as "now the most reliable online source for all Registers" (i. e. all lists of summits attained). The DoBIH has been used as a source by books, hillwalking websites and smartphone apps, including Mark Jackson's 2010 book on the HuMPS, titled More Relative Hills of Britain. as of July 2023 the database included 20,742 hills, including all Marilyns, HuMPs, TuMPs, Simms, Dodds, Munros and Tops, Corbetts and Tops, Grahams and Tops, Donalds and Tops, Furths, Hewitts, Nuttalls, Buxton & Lewis, Bridges, Yeamans, Clems, Murdos, Deweys, Donald Deweys, Highland Fives, Wainwrights, Birketts, Synges, Fellrangers, Ethels, County tops, SIBs (Significant Islands of Britain), Dillons, Arderins, Vandeleur Lynams, Carns and Binnions. Since 2012, the DoBIH has had a data sharing agreement with the Irish online database of mountains and hills known as MountainViews.

The P600s are mountains in the British Isles that have a topographical prominence of at least , regardless of absolute height or other merits. The list initially used a 2,000 ft metric (or 609.6 m, the P610s) but this was subsequently reduced to 600 m and the list became known as the "Majors". The list is authored by Mark Trengove. The definitive version is published on his Europeak website and in the Database of British and Irish Hills. It is one of the shortest of the classification lists of mountains in the British Isles as it has testing threshold criteria. In 2006, 93 P600s were identified in Great Britain: 82 in Scotland, four in England and seven in Wales. These, together with one in Northern Ireland, one on the Isle of Man, and 24 in the Republic of Ireland, brought the total number of P600 mountains in the British Isles to 119. Although the margin of error means the result is not conclusive, it was accepted by Mark Trengove, who was present on the survey, bringing the total back to 119. More recently available LIDAR data for the col would give a prominence of 599.7m. In February 2020 a GNSS survey of Beinn Odhar Bheag in conjunction with OS trig point data for Rois Bheinn found the former to be 1 metre higher. Accordingly, Beinn Odhar Bheag has replaced Rois bheinn in the P600 list. The online version of The Database of British and Irish Hills also offers a P500 mountain classification: summits with a prominence above .

The Marilyns are mountains and hills in the British Isles that have a topographical prominence above , regardless of absolute height or other merits. There are 454 Marilyns in Ireland (389 in the Republic of Ireland and 66 in Northern Ireland), and five on the Isle of Man, bringing the total for the British Isles to 2,011. As of April 2020, there were 2,984 HuMPs in the British Isles: 2,167 in Scotland, 833 in Ireland, 441 in England, 368 in Wales and 11 in the Channel Islands. Jackson maintains a "Hall of Fame" for climbers who have summited 1,200 HuMPs. By definition all Simms are also TuMPs (see below) and most, if not all, are mountains, depending on whether 600 metres or 2,000 feet (610 m) (e. g. a ), is used as the criterion. The idea of the Simm was introduced by Alan Dawson in June 2010, who noted that a Simm was the "broadest credible definition of what could be objectively conceived as a mountain in Britain". , 6,414 people had registered themselves as having climbed all 282 Scottish Munros, by March 2020 11 people had registered climbing all 1,557 Marilyns of Great Britain, while by Aug 2021 only four people had registered completion of the 2,531 Simms of Great Britain, three of whom have also declared completion of all 2,755 Simms of the British Isles. July 2020 saw one summit promoted and one deleted, and by 24/07/2020 all of the three initial completers had "topped up".

In 2010, Mark Jackson further expanded the HuMPS and compiled the TuMPs (Thirty and upwards Metre Prominence), a list of all hills in Britain having a prominence above By definition, all Murdos, Corbett Tops, Graham Tops, Hewitts and Deweys are also TuMPs. As of April 2020, there are 17,127 TuMPs; approximately half of that number that did not appear in previously researched lists were researched by Mark Jackson between 2006 and 2009. Since 2012 the list has been published and maintained by the editors of The Database of British and Irish Hills. The list was originally compiled by Sir Hugh Munro in 1891, and is modified from time to time by the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC), an example being the delisting in December 2020 of Stob Coire na Cloiche as a Munro top, now recognised as being of only Unlike most other lists, the Munros do not depend on a rigid prominence criterion for entry; instead, those that satisfy the subjective measure of being a "separate mountain" are regarded as Munros, while subsidiary summits are given the status of Munro Tops. and there are 202 Real Munros in Scotland. Of the 282 Scottish Munros, 54 meet the prominence threshold to be classified as P600s. but the term is not in widespread use.

The Murdos apply a quantitive criterion to the Munros and their associated tops, and comprise all of the summits in Scotland over 3000 feet (914 m) with a prominence above There are 442 Murdos, compared to 282 Munros (or 508 Munros plus Munro Tops); one of the Munros does not qualify as a Murdo (Maoile Lunndaidh), and 66 of the Munro Tops do not qualify as Murdos. Dawson's threshold is in line with the 1994 UIAA declaration that an "independent peak" has to have a prominence of over All Murdos are either SMC Munros or SMC Munro Tops.

The Corbetts are peaks in Scotland that are between high with a prominence of at least 500 feet (152 m). The list was compiled in the 1920s by John Rooke Corbett, a Bristol based climber and SMC member, and was published posthumously after his sister passed it to the SMC. A list of British hills with over 150 metres prominence was first published in 1992 by Alan Dawson in The Relative Hills of Britain, with the subset from 2000 to 2500 feet referred to as Elsies (LCs, short for Lesser Corbetts). The Elsies were later named Grahams after the late Fiona Torbet (née Graham) who published her own list of Scottish hills from 2000–2500 feet six months later. Dawson continues to maintain the list, which as of December 2022 comprised 231 hills from 600 to 762 metres high. Two of the original Grahams no longer qualify: Cnoc Coinnich was found to be above the height threshold, while Stob na Boine Druim fhinn was found to have less than 150 metres prominence. In 2004, Dawson published a list of Graham Tops covering every summit in Scotland between high with over 30 metres of prominence. This list has since been superseded by the Simms, which include all mountains in Britain over 600 metres high with at least 30 metres prominence.

The Donalds are mountains in the Scottish Lowlands over 2,000 feet (610 m), amongst other criteria. The list was compiled by Percy Donald in 1935, and is maintained by the SMC. Given the complexity of the Donald classification, the simpler New Donalds was introduced by Alan Dawson in his 1995 book The Grahams and the New Donalds, with an explicit prominence threshold of ; there are 118 New Donalds, and while all Donald Hills are New Donalds, 22 Donald Tops are not.

The Hughs (Hills Under Graham Height) are a list compiled by Andrew Dempster, who published The Hughs: Scotland's Best Wee Hills Under 2,000 Feet: Volume 1: The Mainland in 2015. Dempster describes them as "hills with attitude, not altitude" and says "the three key words are prominence, position, panorama". He lists 100 summits in the mainland volume, and plans a second volume to list 100 summits on the islands. as of 2021 they are not listed in the DBIH but have attracted attention from peakbaggers.

Furths are mountains in Great Britain and Ireland that are furth of (i. e. "outside") Scotland, and which would otherwise qualify as Scottish Munros or Munro Tops. They are sometimes referred to as the Irish, the English or the Welsh Munros. There are 34 furths; 15 in Wales, 13 in Ireland and six in England. The highest is Snowdon. Of these 34 SMC identified Furths, 33 have a prominence above (e. g. the Murdo Furths), 14 have a prominence above (e. g. the Real Munro Furths), and 10 have a prominence above (e. g. the P600 Furths).

A Vandeleur Lynam is the Irish equivalent of a Nuttall, except that the definition is fully metric with a height requirement of , and a prominence requirement of As with the Nuttalls, Vandeleur Lynams do not meet the UIAA requirements for a "peak" or for a "mountain". There are 275 Vandeleur Lynams in Ireland.

The Arderins are mountains in Ireland above , with a prominence over The list was drawn up in 2002 by the Irish MountainViews publisher Simon Stewart from an early listing of the Myrddyn Deweys with hills from the Vandeleur Lynams which meet the higher prominence criterion. The Arderins were published in the 2013 book, "A Guide to Ireland's Mountain Summits: The Vandeleur Lynams & the Arderins".

In 2013, Simon Stewart, publisher of Irish mountain database MountainViews Online Database, published A Guide to Ireland's Mountain Summits: The Vandeleur Lynams & the Arderins. which has also become popular in Ireland.

MountainViews and Database of British and Irish Hills recognise a list of 337 summits as Carns, having height above and below , and with a prominence over .

MountainViews and Database of British and Irish Hills recognise a list of 484 summits as Binnions, having a prominence of at least and a height below .

The Mud and Routes website includes a list of WASHIS: Welsh And Six Hundred In Stature, 118 summits which are over 600 m (1,969 ft) and have a prominence of at least , with the comment that "Wales doesn't have a list of summits in its own right", but the term does not appear to have been adopted elsewhere.

Climbing to the highest point of each county is a form of peak bagging, dating back to the 1920s when John Rooke Corbett was attempting to visit all British County Tops. Deweys extend the England and Wales Hewitts below 2,000 feet, but above 500 metres. There are 426 Deweys identified: 241 in Wales, 180 in England, and five in the Isle of Man. The Donald Deweys are peaks in the Scottish lowlands (similar to the Donald classification), between 500 metres and 2,000 feet (610 m) in height, with a prominence above , which were listed by David Purchase in 2001. The Highland Fives are peaks in the Scottish highlands, between 500 metres and 2,000 feet (610 m) in height, with a prominence above The first listing was compiled by Rob Woodall in 2003 using contributions from Tony Payne and others. in 2011, who overhauled the list and with Woodall's agreement took over its maintenance and named it the Highland Fives. Highland Fives are the Scottish highland equivalent of Deweys. There are 774 Highland Fives. The Myrddyn Deweys are peaks in Ireland, between 500 metres and 2,000 feet (610 m) in height with a prominence above , listed by Michael Dewey and Myrddyn Phillips and made freely available to the Mountaineering Council of Ireland in 2000.

The Dodds comprises hills between 500 and 600 metres in height, with a prominence above The list was conceived in December 2014 in an article in Marhofn magazine as a unification of those parts of the Deweys, Donald Deweys and Highland Fives below 600m to create a metric list that can be viewed as a downwards extension of the Simms (British hills over 600m high). The acronym comes from "Donald Deweys, Deweys and Scotland". A Subdodd is a hill which just fails (by up to 10m) to qualify on the drop rule, i. e. between 500m and 600m with 20 29m drop. The list was first published by the Database of British and Irish Hills, who maintain the list, in December 2017 after it had been recognised by the Relative Hills Society. The geographical coverage was originally confined to Britain, but was extended to the Isle of Man in February 2020 and to Ireland in September 2020.

A Hardy is the highest point of a UK, Manx or Channel Island hill range, a UK island over or 4.05 km2) or a UK top tier administrative area (counties and unitary authorities). There are now 347 Hardys with the recent addition (up to July 2016) of five low lying English coastal estuary islands: 61 hill ranges, 96 islands and 190 administrative areas. 183 are in England, 31 in Wales, 107 in Scotland and 26 in Northern Ireland. The list was first compiled in the 1990s by Ian Hardy.

The Database of British and Irish Hills recognises as Bridges the 407 summits in George Bridge's Mountains of England and Wales: Tables of the 2000ft Summits (1973).

The Database of British and Irish Hills recognises as Buxton & Lewis the 422 summits in Mountain Summits of England and Wales (1986) by Chris Buxton and Gwyn Lewis.

The Database of British and Irish Hills recognises as Clems the 1,284 summits in the list Yeamans of England & Wales compiled in 1993 by E. D. Clements, known as Clem, by applying Yeaman's criterion of "an eminence which has an ascent of 100m all round, or, failing that, is at least 5 km (walking distance) from any higher point on neighbouring hills" to summits in England, Wales and the Isle of Man, together with 14 summits which he added later. They were named Clems after his death, and formed the basis of the later list of HuMPs. There is no height or prominence threshold. The original list included 18 fells not included in the 214 Wainwrights, some of which are listed among Wainwright's "Outlying fells". The 2019 2021 edition includes a further three summits to bring the total to 230, the additions being Winterscleugh (Bretherdale Common), Whinfell Beacon and Grayrigg Forest, all in the Mardale and the far east volume.

The Database of British and Irish Hills recognises as Yeamans (sometimes spelled Yeomans) the 2,441 summits identified by Eric Yeaman in his Handbook of the Scottish Hills (1989, Arbroath:Wafaida ) with later changes. His criterion was "an eminence which has an ascent of 100 m all round, or, failing that, is at least 5 km (walking distance) from any higher point on neighbouring hills". Yeamans produced an update in 2001, and the list was used as the basis by those developing the later list of HuMPs, but the category is now considered to be "historic" and has not been updated since 2001.