Ireland – The List of Lists

Introduction

To access the Table to the List of Irish Hill Lists please click {here}

When in 1929 the Scottish Mountaineering Club published an article by James A. Parker entitled ‘List of the Mountains in the British Isles 3,000 feet or over in height’ it was the first time that Irish hills had been catalogued using any form of criterion.  Since this time there have been over 70 listings to the Irish hills, these comprise published as well as unpublished works.  Some of these listings are updates to published lists; others are regional listings of hills, some follow set criteria, whereas others are subjective.

Before detailing what the Table comprises, I would like to express my thanks to Jeff Parr and David Purchase for their inspiration, guidance and advice; I am indebted to both as without their help this Table would not be as thorough as it is today.

The Table is a work in progress and when new listings are published or become known to the author it will be updated.  As of publication the Table details known Irish hill lists upto the year 2000, the listings compiled since this date will be added to the Table over the upcoming months.  If people accessing the Table know of any lists that are not represented please contact me, my email address can be found at the ‘About Me’ page heading on the Mapping Mountains blog.

Although the headings within the Table can be thought of as self-explanatory, a brief explanation to their meaning may help those accessing the detail.

To access the Table to the List of Irish Hill Lists please click {here}

The Table consists of the following:

Year:  This is the year of publication, in some instances this is not necessarily the year that appears on the cover of the publication.  For listings that remain unpublished this is the year of compilation.  The lists appear chronologically, where two or more lists appear for the same year without specific month publication, they appear alphabetically by list compiler’s surname.

Author / List Compiler:  When listings are published within books or journals that comprise other material the name of the individual or group responsible for the book or journal appears, as well as that for the hill list compiler.

Title:  This is the title of the hill list, for listings that appear in publications that include other material the publications title is also given.

Publisher:  This column gives the name of the publisher with a hyperlink if on-line information is known to be available.

Minimum Height:  If set criteria have been used they appear in the following columns, with the first column detailing the minimum height used in the hill list.

Maximum Height:  If a maximum height has been detailed within the hill list it appears in this column.

Minimum Prominence:  This is the minimum prominence used in the hill list.  Prominence is also referred to as ‘drop’ or ‘reascent’, and is the height difference between the summit and col connecting the hill to next higher ground along the watershed.

Number of Summits:  This is the number of hills given in the hill list.  If a hill list distinguishes between ‘Separate Mountains’ and ‘Subsidiary Tops’ by column separation or by name indentation both figures are usually given.

Other Criteria:  This column details other criteria if used.

Notes:  This column gives details that are found in the ‘The List’ as well as personal details relating to ‘The Author’ with a hyperlink if on-line information is known to be available.

The Table to the List of Irish Hill Lists has benefited from the generous help of many people, I am indebted to:

With special thanks to Jeff Parr, David Purchase, Ruth Magness and the facility of and the staff at The National Library of Wales at Aberystwyth.

Thanks to Jean Boydell, Irvine Butterfield, Mark Caslin, ‘Clem’ Clements, Sam Corbett, Alan Dawson, Michael Dewey, John Edmonson, Alun Peter Fisher, John Forsythe, Dennis Golden, Bill Gregor (Cork Mountaineering Club), Peter Haigh (The Gritstone Club), Ian Hardy, John Kirk, Brent Lynam, Joss Lynam, Paul Nolan, Conor O’Hagan (Walking World Ireland), Patrick O’Sullivan (Editor of Irish Mountain Log), Patricia Quigley (Trinity College), Brian Ringland, Eddie Ross, Simon Stewart, Mark Trengove, Richard Webb, Peter Wilson and Rob Woodall.

Myrddyn Phillips (2015)

To access the Table to the List of Irish Hill Lists please click {here}

The History of Welsh Hill Lists - Preface

 

The following text is an analysis of the evolutionary process of the early years of the Welsh hill list.  From its first systematic use in the early 20^th century to the early 1960’s when one man had a vision decades ahead of its time.  As with most hill lists ground rules are used, mine are:

Within the following pages a peak over 2000 feet in height is usually described as a mountain, and one under this height as a hill, occasionally this does alter, but only when I consider the reading of the text necessitates it.  A 'peak' or 'top' can refer to either a mountain or hill.

Over time some accepted spellings for mountains and place names have changed.  Whilst using quotations and listings of hills I have adhered to the original spellings within each respective list and have put these in italics.  Hopefully no confusion will arise from doing this.

To differentiate between the text that deals with the background to each list and the text that deals with the detailed description of the list itself, the latter has been indented within the text. 

When each list is introduced its date of publication, or compilation for unpublished listings, author and title are highlighted in bold.

Although lists of hills to various individual ranges do exist, the smallest region this article deals with is either Northern or Southern Snowdonia.    The one category this article does not detail  is listings to the County Tops.

The research conducted for this article has been greatly enhanced by help given by a number of people.  I would like to express my thanks to; Richard Moss, Dewi Jones, Bill Owens, the late George Bintley, David Matthews, Dr H.J.B. Day, Brian Turner (The Wayferers’ Club),  Ros Harding (The King's School, Chester), Geof Milburn, David Purchase and Jeff Parr.


Next installment due on the 30^th January 2014 

For Part 1 please click {here}

For Part 2 please click {here}

For Part 3 please click {here}