UKH

aln's thread on Scottish Fells got me thinking about all the different names we have for hills and valleys in the UK.

We have Fells and Dales in the north of England, and it appears Fells in parts of Scotland.

We have Hills and Batches in the Shropshire Hills.

We have Corries and Glens in Scotland, Cwms in Wales and Coombes in the West Country.

Then there are Downs and Bottoms in the South Downs.

Any more?

Wolds in the Cotswolds.

Moss in the Peaks

We have Dales and Dals in scotland as well. Attadale and Ulladal for examples.

Strath is a wide valley.

Tholl (hole) is occasionally used as a name for a corrie.

'Low' is a rather nice Derbyshire/Peak one for a hill. So we have a 'High Low' near Monyash.

'Laws' and 'hopes' in Northumberland...

Don’t forget the Dodd’s in the Lakes

As well as the Lincolnshire Wolds and the Yorkshire Wolds. 

And the Weald which lies between the North and South Downs.

We've got an article series in production on this very subject. Gaelic in the landscape will be coming soon, then Welsh. I guess there's potential for one on Norse and other languages too.

Robert McFarlane’s ‘Landmarks’ is good on the language of wild places.

And all the way to Dundee: N. Berwick, Traprain, Largo and Dundee Law to name but four. Wonder how far south it goes?

Pike 

Don't tell him!

Bin, Ben, Beinn, Meall etc 

Old Man of ...

Is my fiver in the post? 

Beacons 

And over the Border in Ireland, Reeks

Tor

Deans in Durham, Northumberland and Yorkshire.

Within 5 miles we have a Dean,  a pike,  a hill, a vale, various dales and moors (including Bog Eggs Moor and Tom Tittiman's Ground) 

Laws and Denes also appear in County Durham.

Hill names also end in Moss, Head, Hill and Top.  They can drain in to Sikes and Burns.  Side valleys may be Hopes.

Forest and Park are often attached to high ground here as a legacy of their old use as royal hunting lands.  Common is common as well.

Carrs and Plain are in the names of some of the flatter, more bog and hag ridden hills (a Durham speciality).  Carrs is shared with lowland farmland that has been drained from bog, particularly around the Bradbury area.

Radnorshire has its dingles.

Wiltshire/Wessex also has coombes

In the Fens we have the Isle of Ely which is a good 20m above sea level.

Around the Norfolk Broads carr woodland is a particular habitat of swampy trees that grows when reed beds cease to be managed. It is not necessarily on high ground.

I missed “Seat” from my list.  Sometimes I wonder who Dora was.

In Herts/Beds, Hoe for 'spur of a hill', e.g Sharpenhoe, Ivinghoe.

Without looking at a map, I recall seeing Tom Tittiman on an OS years ago.... is it Hebden area?

I like Paps.

Knob.

No, not you!  Plenty of Knobs around.

I believe Wessex has a particularly fine example of a henge, but it's never been the same since Æthelwulf died.

Tor, for real hills (Glastonbury, Mam) as opposed to "mere" crags (Cratcliffe, Raven)

Interestingly, a valley is a coombe or cwm in Britain and in the French Alps it's a combe. I wonder how that happened?

North yorkshire Moors Summits = mostly  'Moors' & the odd Hill.

Valleys =  all are Dales.

Some other names for hills: Tor, Pen, How.

My favourite being Torpenhow Hill, literally hill-hill-hill hill.

You see this one in Scotland too, although they tend to be boggy moorland areas rather than hills, e.g., Lenzie Moss, Flanders Moss.

It's properly mixed up on and to the east of Helvellyn (note the 'llyn' there).  Directly adjacent are coves, nearby are some dales, dodds, moors and a pike and a curious 'glen' too.  The manner in which the archaic survives the input from Saxons, Danes, other assorted norsemen and the desire of those first mapping the area to give everything a name and a spelling remains a persistent source of wonder . . .

T. 

How about low points or passes on ridges?  I know these as a pass or saddle in England, a bealach in Scotland, a col in France or a bwlch in Welsh.

Similarly, ridge itself, which I have seen as crib or drum or gribbin in Welsh and aonach or druim in Scotland.

Sron in Scotland as well.

Werneth Low near Hyde too. Just over the way is Coombes Edge, so 'coombe' isn't exclusive to the West Country. 

I believe that is specifically the nose of a ridge - it would typically be used to describe the tail end of a ridge where it descends to valley level and peters out.  I am happy to be corrected though!

most men do (allegedly)

In Dartmoor terms "lake" is a stream for example Deadlake. 

Bideans are a more select bunch.

and spideans 

But rarest of all - lurg. There’s a big one near a cheesecake, but are there any others?

What's the definition of a Rake? OED suggests an old word meaning path or groove, but that doesn't seem to fit.

Edit: just found out that there's an old Norse word "reka" meaning shovel; interestingly, that's also what "Badile" means in the eponymous Piz.

not Dene?

Raise

Knott(s)

Bell

OK, not the UK but our next door neighbour which shares Gaelic language with Scotland.

in Eire; Cnoc, (various spellings), Slieve, Croagh, Caher

Birdie reeks

lots of bottoms scattered around the country too!

Tumps and dingles in The Forest.

Cwm is Welsh for valley, cymoedd being the plural. Dyffryn is a broad valley or vale and in the north west the word Nant (stream) is also used for valley, eg Peris, Ffrancon, Conwy and Nantlle (Nant Lleu). Apart from the more common Mynydd, Craig, Moel, others you'll come across are Bryn (a small hill), Gallt (summit, but can also mean a wooded slope or area), Carnedd (cairn), Diffwys (steep slope or cliff), and Trum (ridge - leading to a summit). In southern Gwynedd, the terms Tap (rocky outcrop or cliff), Pared (a steep escarpment) and Tarren (rounded, knoll or tump) are often used. The list is endless and if you venture south of the Dyfi you enter a world with a completely different language....

Dumbles. Steep sides wooded streams. Pretty much a notts only phenomena. Probably as close to unmanaged wildwood as you'll find in lowland England 

Backside

A 'Hougue' is a hill here in Guernsey. We don't seem to have a local word for a valley.

Dean here in W Yorkshire but Dent further north

It is indeed

Where?

In the New Forest we have the name Balls for outcrops or small hills as in the name of a holiday campsite Sandy Balls,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandy_Balls

Less well known is Burnt Balls (SU 186 140) which is next to Long Bottom. Since there are several other names ripe for innuendo in the area maybe someone will be making a retro film...... "Carry on up the New Forest" ?

Featherbed?

Haven't had 'clough' yet!

I didnt know that was a thing in the alps, but the answer is simple - Gaul.

Gaul was celtic, the same peoples as cornwall and wales (and much of southern britian before the romans for that matter). The french word for wales is Pays du Gal or something along those lines - land of the gauls.

the alps would have remained a celtic stronghold long after the romans conquered Gaul owing to its innacesibility and strong defences, so the celtic names have lingered in pockets much longer than the lowlands.

I was channeling my inner Al Evans

Edit to add. Edge, as in Rushup, or Axe

Not as large as other features here but in Norfolk (and more northerly countries) there are holes in the ground called Pingos:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pingo

or Cleugh, as in Murder Cleugh in Northumberland