Lists of mountains and hills in the British Isles
The mountains and hills of the British Isles are categorised into various lists based on different combinations of elevation, prominence, and other criteria such as isolation. These lists are used for peak bagging, whereby hillwalkers attempt to reach all the summits on a given list, the oldest being the 282 Munros in Scotland, created in 1891.
A height above 2,000 ft, or more latterly 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 , does not meet the International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation definition of an "independent peak", which is a threshold over. Most lists consider a prominence between as a "top". Marilyns, meanwhile, have a prominence above, with no additional height threshold. They range from small hills to the largest mountains. Prominences above, meet the P600 classification, which is the UIAA international classification of a "major" mountain.
General concepts
Elevation
There is no worldwide consensus on the definition of mountain versus a hill, but in Great Britain and Ireland it is usually taken to be any summit with an elevation of at least 2,000 feet. The UK government legally defines 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.
Prominence
All British Isles-wide mountain classifications, and most country-specific classifications, include an explicit minimum topographical prominence threshold, which is typically.The lowest prominence threshold is , but most classifications have a prominence threshold above. Many classifications use the term "Tops" for peaks with prominence between , while other classifications ignore height and just focus purely on prominence.
Prominence requirements feature in International Climbing and Mountaineering Federation classifications of Himalayan mountains. In 1994, the UIAA stated that for a "peak" to be independent, it needed a prominence over, and a "mountain" had to have a prominence above.
Unlike the single measurement of elevation, prominence requires the measurement of all contours around the peak and is therefore subject to greater revision over time, and thus classification lists based on prominence are subject to change. Some definitions use an imperial measurement for height, but a metric measurement for the topological prominence (e.g. Murdos, Hewitts, and Nuttalls.
Isolation
No British Isles classification uses a quantitative metric of topographic isolation. However, the concept is embedded in the qualitative definition of a Scottish Munro, and the Scottish Mountaineering Club requirement of "sufficient separation".''Database of British and Irish Hills''
The Database of British and Irish Hills was created in 2001 "with the intention of providing a comprehensive, up-to-date resource for British hillwalkers". It is maintained by a team of eight editors, and is described by the Long Distance Walkers Association as "now the most reliable online source for all Registers". The DoBIH has been used as a source by books, hillwalking websites and smartphone apps. It has also been used in academic and topographical research.The DoBIH is available as a downloadable database, or in an online version under the title Hill Bagging. 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, 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.
British Isles
P600 (the "Majors")
The P600s are mountains in the British Isles that have a topographical prominence of at least, regardless of absolute height or other merits. The list initially used a 2,000 ft metric 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. Later, the Welsh peak Moel Siabod's prominence was remapped at and the list of P600s expanded to 120. In 2018 a GNSS survey gave a prominence of 599.9m. 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 British Isles' P600s contain 54 of the 282 Scottish Munros, and 10 of the 34 Non-Scottish Munros called ; these 64 British Isles' mountains meet the designation of being above in height, and in prominence.
P600 is an international mountain classification criterion, along with P1500, for a prominence above. The online version of The Database of British and Irish Hills also offers a P500 mountain classification: summits with a prominence above.
Marilyns
The Marilyns are mountains and hills in the British Isles that have a topographical prominence above, regardless of absolute height or other merits. there were 1,550 Marilyns in Great Britain: 1,218 in Scotland, 173 in England, and 159 in Wales. As all the marginal qualifiers have been surveyed, the current list, republished in June 2025, is likely to be stable. There are 454 Marilyns in Ireland, and five on the Isle of Man, bringing the total for the British Isles to 2,009.The list was first compiled in 1992 by Alan Dawson. The name was coined as a humorous contrast to the designation Munro, which is homophonous with Marilyn Monroe| Monroe. The Marilyns are one of the most popular lists for peak baggers, and because of the lack of any height threshold, the classification includes a wide range of hills and mountains, and some sea stacks.
HuMPs
The Marilyns were expanded in 2007 by the HuMPs, which reduced the prominence requirement to ; all British Isles Marilyns are British Isles HuMPS. Though he did not use the term HuMP, Eric Yeaman's Handbook of the Scottish Hills is considered an early source as it included lists of hills with a prominence above 100 m. The name and first formal British Isles list was compiled by Mark Jackson from a number of sources and published online in 2010 in More Relative Hills of Britain. As of April 2020, there were 2,984 HuMPs in the British Isles: 2,167 in Scotland, 833 in Ireland, 441 in England, 368 in Wales and 11 in the Channel Islands. Jackson maintains a "Hall of Fame" for climbers who have summited 1,200 HuMPs.Simms
A Simm is a mountain in the British Isles that is over high and has a prominence of at least. The word comes from Six-hundred Metre Mountain. As of April 2020, there are 2,755 recorded Simms in the British Isles, including 2,190 Scottish Simms, 192 English Simms, 149 Welsh Simms, one Isle of Man Simm, and 223 Irish Simms. By definition all Simms are also TuMPs and most, if not all, are mountains, depending on whether 600 metres or 2,000 feet , is used as the criterion. The idea of the Simm was introduced by Alan Dawson in June 2010, who noted that a Simm was the "broadest credible definition of what could be objectively conceived as a mountain in Britain"., 6,414 people had registered themselves as having climbed all 282 Scottish Munros, by March 2020 11 people had registered climbing all 1,557 Marilyns of Great Britain, while by August 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".Dodds
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. The acronym comes from "Donald Deweys, Deweys and Scotland". A Subdodd is a hill which just fails to qualify on the drop rule, i.e. between 500 m and 600 m with 20–29 m 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.