Thursday, 17 December 2020

UKHillwalking Article - New 500m Hill List For Ireland

 

UKHillwalking Article 

UKHillwalking recently published an article on the publication of the Irish Dodds, a list compiled, originated and authored by Michael Dewey and myself.  The original article and a link to it on the UKHillwalking website appear below.

 

New 500m Hill List For Ireland


Myrddyn Phillips and Michael Dewey

Twenty years in the making, the list of all Ireland's 500m 'Dodds' is finally published. The lists's co-authors Myrddyn Phillips and Michael Dewey explain more...

Imperial or metric; our system of measuring height and distance is still mixed between these two systems, and for the world of hill walking we still favour lists such as the Munros, Corbetts, Grahams and the 2,000ft mountains listed by John and Anne Nuttall in preference to purely metric-based lists. However, over recent years there has been a surge toward metric listing. This isn't surprising as Ordnance Survey and OSI maps went metric many a year ago. But in the world of hill bagging, change can sometimes come slowly! And in this instance it has taken twenty years for that change to be implemented.

Descending the eastern ridge of Cnoc Mhaoilibnain, one of the Irish Dodds  © Myrddyn Phillips

The Irish Dodds are finally here.  A list that we [Michael Dewey and Myrddyn Phillips} have co-authored, the Irish Dodds comprise all Irish hills of 500m and above, but below 600m in height, and with a minimum drop of 30m.  These currently number 185 summits.  Accompanying the list is a sub-set of hills named, unsurprisingly, the Subdodds – the Irish hills 500m and above, and below 600m in height, that have 20m or more and below 30m of drop.

Irish hill lists started to go metric in 1993, a process led by Joss Lynam, who downsized their 2,000ft listing to 600m. It was a few years afterward that Britain tipped its proverbial toe in metric lists. With the advent of the British Dodds, which were first suggested as a list in 2014, the Irish listing has now followed suit.

The Irish Dodds have been extracted from a list that we first co-authored twenty years ago. This earlier list used 500m as minimum height and 2,000ft (609.6m) as the maximum. By doing so it bookended itself with the 2,000ft Irish Hewitts list, as compiled by the late 'Clem' Clements (which has now co-authored responsibilities between Myrddyn and David Purchase).

The Irish Dodds and Subdodds have been published by the Haroldstreet website and are available as an online tick list and GPS Waypoints. They are available here:

 

For the original article published on the UKHillwalking website

 

 

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