WalkLakes • Tables of Mountains

By jeffrygorczany on 11/05/21 at 9:16am

Are you guy's aware of the book I use to help me get around the hills.

I think it must be much like the Nuttalls books, listing all the separate mountains and tops. Its written by George Bridge and is called "The Mountains of England and Wales."

I think the Nuttall list may be more accurate as in the Bridge book there are only 150 mountains and tops in the Lakes. I notice that Nuttalls, (according to this site) list 171 Mountains and tops

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By TallPaul on 11/05/21 at 9:29am

I've not come across it but the edition they've got listed on Amazon looks older (1973).

One of the problems with lists of tops is that a lot of it depends on your definition. Most modern lists include a measure of drop or ascent before it's considered to be distinct. So, for example a hill is classified as a Nuttall if it is in England or Wales and its summit is at least 2000 feet (610 metres) high, with a minimum of 50 feet (15 metres) of ascent on all sides. Did Bridge do that?

This isn't always the case mind you. Two of the more famous tops lists are more arbitrary so:

Wainwrights are just any of of the 214 Lake District fells described in Alfred Wainwright's seven volume A Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells ... so that's just the ones he liked.
Munros are Scottish hills of at least 3000 feet in height (914.4m) regarded by the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) as distinct and separate mountains, based on a list originally published by Sir H.T. Munro in the Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal in 1891 and subsequently revised by the SMC ...and the key word thee is "regarded". So they just decide among themselves.

The other problem of course is that more accurate measurement of the height of tops moves them in and out of lists, although that's happening less often now as most of the borderline cases have been accurately re-measured using special GPS kit.

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