Know Your Mountains | Tony's Walks

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Mountain and Hill Features

The shapes, summits, and structures of the upland landscape

Term	Description	Notes & Regional Usage
ArêteAlso: Edge	A narrow, knife-edged rocky ridge with steep drops on both sides — one of the most dramatic features of the upland landscape, typically formed by glacial erosion on opposing faces of a mountain.	The term arête is French; in English upland areas the same feature is often called an Edge. Classic examples include Striding Edge on Helvellyn and Sharp Edge on Blencathra.
Buttress	A prominent rock face flanked on either side by gullies, projecting outward from a cliff or crag like a natural pillar. A frequent landmark in route descriptions for rock climbers and scramblers.	Common in Lake District and Welsh mountain descriptions.
Crag	A rugged, exposed cliff or rock face, typically on the side of a fell or mountain. Crags are a defining feature of the Lake District and the gritstone edges of the Peak District.	Widespread across Northern England and Scotland.
Dod / Dodd	A bare, rounded hilltop — typically a subsidiary summit sitting below a higher peak, with a smooth, grassy appearance. A very common summit type in the Lake District.	Common in the Lake District. Examples include Gowbarrow Dodd and Long Side.
EdgeAlso: Arête	A very narrow rocky ridge with steep drops on both sides — the English equivalent of the French term arête. Also used more broadly to describe the long, sharp escarpment edge of a moorland plateau.	Particularly common in the Peak District — Stanage Edge, Froggatt Edge, etc.
Fell	A mountain or upland hill, particularly one with open, uncultivated terrain. The word derives from the Old Norse fjall, reflecting the Scandinavian heritage of Northern England's place names.	Characteristic of the Lake District and Northern Pennines. Rarely used in Wales or Scotland.
How	A small, rounded hill or mound. Often appears as a suffix in Northern English place names.	Common in the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales — e.g., Loughrigg, Arnside Knott.
Knott	A rocky, craggy hilltop or small summit — typically rougher and more rugged than a How.	Common in Cumbria — e.g., High Knott, Raven's Knott.
Law	A conical or rounded hill, often standing isolated above the surrounding landscape. From the Old English hlāw.	Most common in Scotland and northern England — e.g., Berwick Law, Dunbar's Traprain Law.
Pike	A sharp, well-defined mountain peak with a distinctly pointed summit — one of the most evocative words in the English hill-walking vocabulary.	Widespread in the Lake District — Scafell Pike, Bowfell, Pike of Stickle — and the Pennines.
Pinnacle	A large, isolated rock tower or spire with a pointed summit, typically rising from a crag or ridge. Requires scrambling or climbing to reach the very top.	Found on many Lake District and Scottish ridges.
Ridge / Rigg	A long, elevated line of high ground connecting several summits and cols. A ridge typically has a steep drop on at least one side; a true arête has steep drops on both. Rigg is an older Norse-derived variant.	Rigg is common in Cumbrian place names — e.g., High Rigg, Birkett Mire Rigg.
Stones	A small, exposed outcrop of gritstone, typically weathered into distinctive shapes by frost and wind. Often serves as a local landmark and viewpoint.	Characteristic of the Dark Peak in Derbyshire — e.g., the Wool Packs on Kinder Scout.
Tor	A prominent rocky outcrop or hill, particularly one formed from exposed granite or similar hard rock standing above the surrounding moorland. Tors are the defining landscape feature of Dartmoor.	Most closely associated with Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor in South West England.

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Glacial and Valley Features

Landscapes shaped by ice, water, and geological time

Term	Description	Notes & Regional Usage
Bealach / Bwlch / Col	A dip or pass in a mountain ridge between two summits — the low point that offers the easiest crossing from one side of a ridge to another. Essential vocabulary for anyone reading a mountain route description.	Bealach (Scotland, Gaelic), Bwlch (Wales), Col (England — also used internationally in Alpine contexts).
Cirque / Coire / Corrie	A bowl-shaped hollow carved into a mountainside by a glacier — one of the most dramatic and recognisable products of glaciation. The steep back wall and curved sides form a natural amphitheatre, often containing a tarn. The Gaelic word Coire (pronounced 'kor-yeh') is anglicised as Corrie.	Cirque (international/French), Coire (Scotland, Gaelic), Corrie (anglicised Scottish). Red Tarn on Helvellyn sits in a classic example.
Clough	A moorland valley cut by a stream — a narrow, often steep-sided ravine in upland country, typically with a watercourse running through it.	Common in the Peak District and South Pennines — e.g., Grindsbrook Clough on Kinder Scout.
Comb	The rounded, convex side of a hill — the bulging shoulder of a fell as opposed to the concave hollow of a cove or corrie.	Used across Northern England and Scotland.
Cove / Cwm	A large, open depression in a mountainside, typically with a steep back wall and flatter floor, often containing a tarn. Similar to a corrie but generally broader and less enclosed. Cwm is the Welsh equivalent.	Cove (England — e.g., Birkness Combe in the Lake District), Cwm (Wales — e.g., Cwm Idwal).
Dale	A large, open valley — the classic landscape of the Yorkshire Dales and the Pennines. From the Old Norse dalr, reflecting the Viking settlement of Northern England.	Most strongly associated with Yorkshire and the Pennines — Wharfedale, Swaledale, Wensleydale.
Gully	A wide, steep-sided cleft cutting down a cliff face or mountainside — larger than a crack but typically narrower than a cove. In winter conditions, gullies are classic mountaineering routes.	Used universally across all upland areas.
Pass	A relatively easy and well-defined route through or over a mountain range, connecting two valleys. Passes are the traditional crossing points of mountain barriers and have been used by travellers, drovers, and armies throughout history.	Classic examples include Kirkstone Pass (Lake District) and the Llanberis Pass (Snowdonia).

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Water and Wetland Features

Streams, lakes, bogs, and the language of wet ground

Term	Description	Notes & Regional Usage
Beck / Brook / Dike / Gutter	A stream or small watercourse. The word used varies by region but the meaning is essentially the same — a flowing body of water smaller than a river.	Beck is the standard term in Northern England (from Old Norse bekkr). Brook is more common in the Midlands and South.
Bog	A waterlogged wetland with acidic conditions, typically dominated by sphagnum moss and cotton grass. The peat that characterises so much of Britain's upland moorland is formed from decomposed bog vegetation. Bogs are notoriously difficult to cross on foot.	Distinct from a Fen, which is an alkaline wetland. The Dark Peak of Derbyshire is classic bog terrain.
Fen	A waterlogged wetland with alkaline or neutral conditions — the opposite chemistry to a bog. Fens tend to support richer plant communities than bogs and are more common in lowland areas.	Distinct from a Bog, which is acidic. The Norfolk Broads and Cambridgeshire Fens are classic examples.
Firth	An estuary, sea inlet, or sea loch — a long arm of the sea penetrating inland. A defining feature of the Scottish coastline.	Almost exclusively Scottish — e.g., Firth of Forth, Firth of Clyde, Moray Firth.
Force / Spout	A waterfall. Force derives from the Old Norse fors and is characteristic of the Lake District and Yorkshire Dales, where waterfalls are among the most celebrated features of the landscape.	Force is the standard term in the Lake District and Pennines — Hardraw Force, High Force, Aira Force.
Ghyll / Gill	A steep, narrow ravine with a stream running through it — deeper and more confined than a clough, typically with rocky sides and cascading water. A quintessential Lake District landscape feature.	Almost exclusively Lake District and Northern England. Sourmilk Gill, Glenridding Gill.
Holme	A small island, or an area of dry ground surrounded by marshland or water — from the Old Norse holmr.	Appears frequently in place names across Northern England.
Marsh	A waterlogged wetland that cannot support woody vegetation such as trees or shrubs — characterised by reeds, rushes, and grasses.	Distinct from a Swamp, which can support trees. Found in coastal and lowland areas.
Mere / Tarn / Water	A lake or body of still water. A tarn typically refers specifically to a small mountain lake, often occupying a corrie or hollow in the fells. Mere and Water are used for larger bodies of water.	Tarn is characteristic of the Lake District — Stickle Tarn, Red Tarn. Mere is more common in the lowlands — Windermere, Grasmere.
Mire / Moss	A peat bog or level, marshy area — sodden, treacherous ground that has swallowed many an unwary walker's boot. Moss is the Northern English term for the same feature.	Infamous examples include Featherbed Moss and Bleaklow Moss in the Peak District.
Swamp	A waterlogged wetland that can support woody vegetation including trees — distinguishing it from a marsh.	Less common in the uplands; more typical of lowland river valleys and coastal areas.

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Moorland, Rock, and Cave Features

The surfaces, structures, and underground world of upland Britain

Term	Description	Notes & Regional Usage
Erratic	A boulder or piece of rock carried far from its origin by a glacier and deposited in a landscape of entirely different geology. Erratics can be dramatically different in appearance from the rocks around them and are important evidence of past glaciation.	Found across Britain wherever glaciers once travelled. The Norber Erratics in the Yorkshire Dales are a classic example.
Grough	A channel or gully cut into a peat moorland by running water — a deep, winding trench in the blanket bog that makes moorland navigation and cross-country walking significantly more difficult.	Characteristic of the Peak District's Dark Peak and the South Pennines. Negotiating groughs is a significant challenge on routes such as the Bleaklow crossing.
Gryke	The deep fissures or clefts that separate the individual blocks (called clints) of a limestone pavement. Grykes can be several feet deep and support rich communities of shade-loving ferns and plants, sheltered from grazing animals.	Classic limestone pavement — with its clints and grykes — can be found at Malham Cove and Ingleborough in the Yorkshire Dales.
Hag	An isolated pedestal or island of peat, topped with grass or heather, standing above the eroded moorland surface around it. Hags are the remnants of former peat bog that has been cut away by erosion on all sides.	Common on heavily eroded moorland such as the Dark Peak and the South Pennines.
Links	Sand dunes, or the areas of open, undulating ground behind a beach — most famously associated with links golf courses, which were originally laid out on this coastal terrain.	Most commonly used in Scotland and coastal areas of Northern England.
Muir	Rough, open grazing land or moorland — the Scottish equivalent of the English moor. Muirland covers vast tracts of the Scottish uplands.	Exclusively Scottish — e.g., Rannoch Muir, the vast and desolate moorland of the central Highlands.
Pothole	In the upland walking context, a cave system or entrance shaft formed in limestone country by water dissolving the rock over thousands of years. Not to be confused with potholes in roads.	The Yorkshire Dales — particularly the area around Horton-in-Ribblesdale and Ribblesdale — is the centre of British potholing.
Scree Slope	A slope covered with loose, broken fragments of rock — typically found below crags and cliffs where freeze-thaw weathering has shattered the rockface over time. Scree can be very tiring and unstable to descend.	Common on many Lake District and Scottish mountain descents. The Great Hell Gate scree on the Wastwater side of Scafell is notorious.
Shake Holes	Depressions in the ground caused by the collapse of subsurface voids — associated with former mining activity or natural limestone dissolution. Unlike swallow holes, they are not fed by running water.	Found in old mining areas of the Pennines, the Peak District, and parts of Wales.
Swallets / Swallow Holes	A hole or opening in limestone where a surface stream disappears underground, swallowed into the cave systems below. The stream may re-emerge miles away as a spring or resurgence.	Classic examples in the Yorkshire Dales — the stream above Gaping Gill on Ingleborough vanishes into Britain's largest underground chamber.

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Navigation and Peak Classification

The tools, techniques, and lists that define the walker's world

Term	Description	Notes
Cairn	A small pile of stones marking a summit, a route, or a waypoint — one of the oldest and most universal navigational aids in the mountains. Some cairns are ancient; others have been built and rebuilt by generations of passing walkers.	Found on virtually every British mountain summit. Large cairns sometimes mark cols and path junctions in poor visibility.
Contour / Traverse	To move across the face of a hill, fell, or mountain without significantly gaining or losing height — following an imaginary contour line around the slope. Contouring avoids the effort of climbing over a summit but can be tiring on steep, uneven ground.	A key technique in mountain navigation, particularly when conserving energy on a long day.
Rake	A hillside path or ramp cutting diagonally across a steep slope — originally used by shepherds for driving sheep between different levels of pasture. Some rakes provide useful scrambling or walking routes up otherwise difficult terrain.	The term is common in the Lake District — Lord's Rake on Scafell, Broad Stand Rake.
Scramble	A climb up steep rock or rough terrain that requires the use of both hands and feet for balance and security, but does not require specialist climbing equipment such as ropes or harnesses. Scrambling sits between walking and rock climbing on the spectrum of mountain activity.	Grades 1–3 in Britain, with Grade 3 approaching technical climbing. Striding Edge and Sharp Edge are popular Grade 1 scrambles.
Shiel	A bothy, shelter, or shepherd's hut — a basic refuge used seasonally by those working in the hills. Many former shiels are now maintained as bothies by the Mountain Bothies Association.	Most common in Scotland; the word derives from the Scots and Northern English shiel or shieling.
Trig Point	A concrete pillar — formally known as a Hotine Pillar — erected by the Ordnance Survey as part of the national triangulation network used to produce accurate maps of Great Britain. Trig points stand on hilltops and high ground across the country and are a familiar landmark on the British hills.	Now largely superseded by GPS and digital mapping, but trig points remain beloved landmarks and are the target of dedicated 'trig bagging' enthusiasts.
Wainwright	One of the 214 fells in the Lake District described in Alfred Wainwright's celebrated seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells (1955–1966). Completing all 214 is one of the great long-term walking achievements in England.	See the Mountain Challenges page for more on the Wainwrights.
Hewitt	A hill in England, Ireland, or Wales that exceeds 2,000ft (609.6m) in height with a topographic prominence of at least 30 metres. The name is an acronym: Hills of England, Wales and Ireland over Two Thousand feet.	There are around 520 Hewitts across England, Wales and Ireland combined.
Marilyn	A hill or mountain of any height in the UK and Ireland with a topographic prominence of at least 152m (approximately 500ft). The name is a playful counterpart to the Munros — a Marilyn Monroe to the Munros' Monroe Doctrine.	There are over 1,500 Marilyns in the British Isles, spread across every region.
Munro	A Scottish mountain exceeding 3,000ft (914.4m) in height. The list was first compiled by Sir Hugh Munro in 1891 and now stands at 282 summits. Completing all the Munros — 'doing the Munros' — is the defining long-term challenge of Scottish hillwalking.	See the Mountain Challenges page for more on the Munros.
Murdo	A sub-category of the Munros: a Scottish mountain exceeding 3,000ft (914.4m) with at least 30m (98ft) of topographic prominence. The Murdos form a more selective list than the full Munros, excluding subsidiary tops.	Named after Murdo Mackay, who devised the list. There are 444 Murdos compared to 282 Munros.

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Activities and Descriptive Terms

The words walkers use to describe what they do and where they go

Term	Description	Notes
Bog Trotting	The art — or perhaps the ordeal — of walking across rough, boggy moorland, where the ground is wet, uneven, and liable to swallow a boot without warning. Bog trotting requires a particular combination of stamina, route-finding instinct, and a philosophical attitude towards wet feet.	A defining experience of routes such as the Pennine Way's northern sections and the Dark Peak crossings.
Meikle / Mickle / Muckle	A Scottish and Northern English word meaning big, great, or large. Appears frequently in place names across the north of England and Scotland to indicate the larger of two related features.	Meikle (Scottish Gaelic), Mickle / Muckle (Northern English dialect). E.g., Mickle Fell — formerly England's highest point in Yorkshire before boundary changes.
Nether	Lower — used in place names to distinguish the lower of two settlements, farms, or features from the upper. The opposite of Over or Upper.	Common in English place names — Nether Wasdale, Nether Stowey, Netherby.
Wild Walking	Walking on pathless, open terrain — navigating by map and compass across moorland, bog, or mountain without the benefit of a marked path. Wild walking demands stronger navigation skills and a higher tolerance for uncertainty than path-following.	A term used on this site to flag routes that leave defined paths for open country walking.
Peak Bagging	The satisfying pursuit of systematically working through a classification list of hills or mountains — ticking off each summit as it is climbed. Peak bagging turns the hills into a long-term project and has inspired some of the most dedicated walking in the British Isles.	See the Mountain Challenges page for a full guide to the major lists.

📖 A Note on Regional Language

Many of the terms in this glossary reflect the Viking, Norse, Gaelic, and Old English roots of British place names. The same landscape feature can carry a different name in Scotland, Wales, and different parts of England — a reminder that the hills have been named and walked by many different peoples over thousands of years. Learning the language of the landscape is one of the quiet pleasures of long-distance walking.