List of Marilyns in the British Isles

Marilyn
Marilyns in the British Isles (red dots)
Highest point
Elevation	no requirement
Prominence	over 150 m (492 ft)
Geography
Location	British Isles: 2,010 Scotland: 1,218 Ireland: 454 England: 174 Wales: 159 Isle of Man: 5

This is a list of Marilyn hills and mountains in the United Kingdom, Ireland and surrounding islands and sea stacks. Marilyns are defined as peaks with a prominence of 150 metres (492 ft) or more, regardless of height or any other merit (e.g. topographic isolation, as used in Munros).^[1] Thus, Marilyns can be mountains, with a height above 600 m (2,000 ft), or relatively small hills.^[2] As of July 2023^[update] there were 2,010 recorded Marilyns.^[1]

The Marilyn classification was created by Alan Dawson in his 1992 book The Relative Hills of Britain.^[3] The name Marilyn was coined by Dawson as a punning contrast to the Munro classification of Scottish mountains above 3,000 ft (914.4 m), but which has no explicit prominence threshold, being homophonous with (Marilyn) Monroe.^[4] The list of Marilyns was extended to Ireland by Clem Clements.^[5]

Marilyn was the first of several subsequent British Isles classifications that rely solely on prominence, including the P600s,^[6] the HuMPs, and the TuMPs.^[7] Topographic prominence is more difficult to estimate than topographic elevation, requiring surveys of each contour line around a peak, and therefore lists using prominence are subject to revision.^[8][9]

Although many of the islands' largest mountains, including Ben Nevis, Carrauntoohil, Scafell Pike and Snowdon, are Marilyns, many other large peaks such as Cairn Gorm, a number of Munros, and well-known hills such as Bowfell, the Langdale Pikes and Carnedd Dafydd, are not Marilyns because they do not have sufficient height relative to the surrounding terrain (i.e. they have taller "parents"). Not all Marilyns are even hills in the usual sense: Crowborough (242 m or 794 ft) sits in a town, whilst Bishop Wilton Wold highest point of the Yorkshire Wolds (248 m or 814 ft) lies alongside the A166 road. At the other extreme are Stac Lee (172 m or 564 ft) and Stac an Armin (196 m or 643 ft), the two highest sea stacks in the British Isles, in the St Kilda archipelago, 100 miles (160 kilometres) west of the Scottish mainland.^[10][11][12]

As of July 2023^[update], there were 2,010 Marilyns in the British Isles, with 1,218 Marilyns in Scotland, including 202 of the 282 Scottish Munros; Munros with a Marilyn–prominence are sometimes called Real Munros.^[1] There were a further 454 Marilyns in Ireland, 174 in England, 159 in Wales, and 5 in the Isle of Man.^[1] On 13 October 2014 Rob Woodall and Eddie Dealtry became the first people to climb all 1,557 Marilyns in Great Britain.^[13][14] As of 2022^[update], 11 Marilynists had climbed "all hills [of Great Britain] that were classed as Marilyns at the time they recorded finishing the list"^[15] while, as of December 2019^[update], 275 had entered the Marilyn Hall of Fame by climbing over 600 Marilyns.^[16]

As of April 2020^[update], the list of 2,010 British Isles Marilyns contained:

This list was downloaded from the Database of British and Irish Hills ("DoBIH") in October 2018, and are peaks the DoBIH marks as Marilyns ("M").^[b] As topological prominence is complex to measure, these tables are subject to revision over time, and should not be amended or updated unless the entire DoBIH data is re-downloaded. The tables are structured to show rankings by height and prominence over the entire British Isles, or by region.

Since the table was downloaded, the following changes have been made to the list of recognised Marilyns:^[18]

• Added: Rhinog Fach, Wales, August 2021 (711.67 m (2,334.9 ft), prominence 151 m (495 ft))^[19]
• Removed: Cheriton Hill, Kent (187.7 m (616 ft), prominence 149.7 m (491 ft))^[20]
• Removed: Giur-bheinn, Islay (317.4 m (1,041 ft), prominence 148.9 m (489 ft))^[21]