What the labels mean

How the Albion Guide rates places

Our own labels, the ones you'll see on cards, lists and place pages.

National iconIconic

Our top rating, for places worth planning a whole trip around: the ones people cross the country to see. There are only a few hundred of them, and every one was chosen by hand after research, never by the computer.

For example: Eilean Donan Castle , Aysgarth Falls , High Force , Pistyll Rhaeadr

Local highlightHighlight

Worth a detour. The best places in their area, good enough to anchor a day out if you're anywhere nearby. These come from a scoring model that weighs up things like what there is to see, how well known a place is and whether you can actually get in, with editors free to overrule it.

For example: Steall Falls , Eas Mòr , Falling Foss , Bude Sea Pool

Local gem

Worth a look. A pleasure if you're close by, even if you wouldn't drive across the county for it. Most of the good, quiet places in the Albion Guide sit here.

For example: Blakeney Guildhall, Cantlop Bridge, Chichele College, Higham Ferrers, Coombe Conduit

Catalogued

On the map for the record. These are real places, often officially protected, but with little to see, no confirmed public access, or both: a fenced-off scrap of meadow, the buried site of a vanished priory, a monument that's now a grassy bump in a field. We list them because people look them up, but we won't pretend they're a day out.

For example: Filsham Reedbed, Bodiam, Kirkcaldy, Abinger Hammer

Open access

You're free to walk in without paying or booking, at any reasonable time. That might be because the land has a legal right of access (see the right to roam, below), because it's a National Nature Reserve, country park or National Trust land left open for wandering, or because the place is simply open to anyone. Being inside a National Park or National Landscape doesn't count on its own: most of the land in them is private.

For example: Box Hill Country Park , Castlerigg stone circle , Kinder Scout

Open to visitors

You're welcome, but on the owner's terms: there's a gate, an admission charge, set opening times or all three. Castles, stately homes, many gardens, and the places run by the National Trust, English Heritage, Cadw and Historic Environment Scotland mostly work this way. Check the official website for opening times and prices before you travel.

For example: Eilean Donan Castle , Bodiam Castle , Chatsworth House

Access unclear

We haven't been able to confirm that the public can get in. It doesn't mean the place is closed: plenty of these can be seen from a nearby footpath or road, and some are open on a few days a year. Check locally before you set out.

Standing, ruins, earthworks or nothing visible

For historic sites we say honestly how much is left. Standing remains means a building you can walk up to and look at. Substantial ruins means roofless, but with plenty still above ground. Earthworks only means banks, ditches and platforms in the grass, with no walls, so you're reading the shape of the ground. Nothing visible means the remains survive underground, and there's nothing to see on site at all.

For example: Bodiam Castle , Fountains Abbey , Old Sarum , Maiden Castle

Protected landscapes and wildlife sites

Official designations for scenery and nature. Most are the job of three government bodies: Natural England, Natural Resources Wales and NatureScot in Scotland.

National Park

The biggest and best-known protection for landscape. A National Park is a large area of countryside protected for its natural beauty, wildlife and heritage, and for people to enjoy. Each one has its own authority that sets the planning rules, which is why new building inside a park is tightly controlled.

National Parks aren't wilderness and they aren't owned by the government. People live and farm in them, and most of the land is privately owned. Britain's first was the Peak District, in 1951. There are 15 in all: ten in England, three in Wales and two in Scotland.

For example: Cairngorms , Eryri , Lake District , Loch Lomond & The Trossachs

National Landscapeformerly Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB)

Countryside judged so special that its scenery is protected to the same standard as a National Park, just without a park authority of its own. Local councils and a dedicated team look after each one instead.

Until late 2023 these were called Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty. AONB is still the legal term, and you'll see it on older signs and maps. They tend to be gentler, more lived-in landscapes than the National Parks: the Cotswolds, the Chilterns, the High Weald. There are 38 across England and Wales. Northern Ireland has eight more, which are still called AONBs.

For example: Forest of Bowland , Cotswolds , North Pennines , North Wessex Downs

National Scenic AreaNSA

Scotland's version of a National Landscape. There are 40 National Scenic Areas, picked out for outstanding scenery, and together they cover a big share of the Highlands and islands, from Glen Coe to St Kilda. Like National Landscapes, they mainly shape what can be built rather than managing the land day to day.

For example: Ben Nevis and Glen Coe , The Cairngorm Mountains , The Cuillin Hills , The Trossachs

Heritage Coast

A stretch of largely undeveloped coast in England or Wales that's been picked out for its beauty and managed to keep it that way, with footpaths, conservation work and a light hand on building. Heritage Coasts often overlap with National Parks or National Landscapes. The white cliffs of the Seven Sisters are part of one.

For example: St Bees Head , Spurn , Purbeck , Rame Head

Site of Special Scientific InterestSSSI

An SSSI is land that scientists have judged important enough to protect by law, for its wildlife, its plants, its rocks or its landforms. Natural England chooses them in England, Natural Resources Wales in Wales, and NatureScot in Scotland. Owners can't damage the special features without permission, which is how a meadow full of rare orchids stays a meadow.

They come in every size. Some are tiny, like a single old quarry face where a layer of rock is exposed. Others are enormous: the Humber Estuary SSSI covers around 37,000 hectares, and whole rivers like the chalk-fed River Itchen in Hampshire are SSSIs from end to end.

An SSSI isn't a promise of a good day out. Plenty are beautiful, but some protect a patch of bog a particular insect likes, and many are on private farmland with no public access at all. There are over 4,000 in England alone, which is why most of them show as Catalogued in the Albion Guide. Northern Ireland has its own version, called an Area of Special Scientific Interest.

For example: Brimham Rocks , Long Mynd , The Malvern Hills , Alderley Edge

National Nature ReserveNNR

The best wildlife sites in the country, protected and managed specifically for nature, and usually open to visitors. Where an SSSI can be a private field, an NNR is typically run by a conservation body with paths, signs and sometimes a warden. Britain's first was Beinn Eighe in Wester Ross, declared in 1951.

For example: Corrieshalloch Gorge , Golitha Falls , Blakeney , Wistman's Wood

Country park

Countryside set aside close to towns so people can get outdoors easily, usually with a car park, paths, toilets and often a café. Most were created by local councils from the late 1960s onwards. They're about access and fresh air rather than rare wildlife, though many are lovely.

For example: Bradgate Park and Swithland Woods , Broadway Tower , Cragside Country Park , Humber Bridge Country Park

Ancient woodland

Land that's been wooded continuously since at least 1600 in England and Wales (1750 in Scotland, where the first good maps date from). The trees themselves may be younger, but the soil, fungi and woodland plants have gone undisturbed for centuries, and that can't be recreated by planting. We show ancient woodland as a background layer on the map rather than as individual pages, though some of the best-known old woods have pages of their own.

For example: Wistman's Wood , Hatfield Forest, Sherwood Forest

RSPB reserve

A nature reserve owned or managed by the RSPB, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the UK's biggest nature charity. Most welcome visitors, with hides, trails and often a visitor centre.

For example: Balranald RSPB Nature Reserve , RSPB Loch Ruthven , RSPB Udale Bay , RSPB Ynys-hir

Designated bathing water

A beach or inland swimming spot that's officially tested for water quality through the swimming season, which runs from mid-May to the end of September in England and Wales, and from 1 June to 15 September in Scotland. Each one gets a yearly rating of Excellent, Good, Sufficient or Poor. A designation means the water gets checked, not that it's always clean, so it's worth looking at the latest rating and any warnings after heavy rain.

For example: Runswick Bay , Bamburgh Beach , Durdle Door , Hartland Quay

Lidosea pool, tidal pool

An open-air public swimming pool. The word comes from the Lido, the long beach island at Venice, and most of Britain's lidos were built between the two world wars, many in an Art Deco style. The Albion Guide files tidal sea pools with them: pools walled or cut into the rocks on the shore and refilled by the sea at high tide, usually free and unheated. Lidos keep seasons and only some are heated, so each page says when it opens and how warm the water is.

For example: Bude Sea Pool , Beccles Lido , Brightlingsea Lido , Bristol Lido

Right to roamopen access land

In England and Wales, a law passed in 2000 gives you the right to walk freely across mapped areas of mountain, moor, heath, down and registered common land, off the paths as well as on them. Ordnance Survey maps shade it in yellow. Scotland goes much further: under a 2003 law, in force since 2005, you can go almost anywhere on foot, as long as you behave responsibly, under the Scottish Outdoor Access Code.

For example: Dartmoor , Kinder Scout , Cairngorms

World Heritage Site

A place UNESCO has judged to matter to the whole of humanity. The UK has over 30, a mix of landscapes and monuments: Stonehenge and Avebury, Hadrian's Wall, the Lake District, the Jurassic Coast and St Kilda among them.

For example: Stonehenge , Lake District , Durdle Door , St Kilda

History and heritage designations

How the country's old buildings and archaeology are protected. Historic England, Cadw (in Wales) and Historic Environment Scotland keep the official lists.

Scheduled monument

An archaeological site or ruin judged nationally important and protected by law, so nobody can dig, build or even use a metal detector on it without permission. The list runs from Stone Age burial mounds to Cold War bunkers, and there are around 20,000 in England. Most of the castles, abbeys, Roman sites and ancient monuments in the Albion Guide are scheduled. Being scheduled says nothing about public access: many are on private farmland.

For example: Castlerigg stone circle , Calanais Standing Stones , Avebury , Penshaw Monument

Listed buildingGrade I, II* and II

A building protected for its architectural or historic interest, so changing or demolishing it needs special permission. In England and Wales there are three grades. Grade I is for buildings of exceptional interest, only a few per cent of the total. Grade II* is for particularly important buildings with more than special interest. Grade II covers everything else on the list, which is the great majority. Scotland uses categories A, B and C in much the same way.

For example: York Minster , Ely Cathedral , Bodiam Castle

Registered park and garden

A designed landscape, such as a country-house park, a landscape garden, a Victorian public park or a cemetery, recorded on Historic England's Register of Parks and Gardens (Cadw keeps the Welsh one) and graded I, II* or II like listed buildings. The grades you see on our house and garden pages come from this register. Being registered doesn't mean a garden is open to the public, so check before you go.

For example: Audley End House and Gardens , Hardwick Hall , Lyme Park , Osborne House

Registered battlefield

A battle site recorded on Historic England's Register of Historic Battlefields, or Scotland's Inventory of Historic Battlefields, where the fighting's location is known well enough to map. Most are farmland today, and the interest is in standing where it happened and reading the ground.

For example: Battle of Naseby , Battle of Bannockburn , Battle of Hastings, Battle of Lewes

National Trust

A charity founded in 1895 to look after places of historic interest and natural beauty for everyone, for ever. It now cares for hundreds of houses, gardens and castles and a huge amount of coast and countryside in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Much of its countryside is free to walk. Its houses and gardens usually charge admission, free to members. Scotland has a separate charity, the National Trust for Scotland.

For example: Farne Islands , St Michael's Mount , Dunster Castle , Lundy

Hill lists

Hill-walkers love a list. Each one below is a way of deciding which hills count, usually by height plus drop, which is how far you have to go down before climbing to anything higher. Collecting the tops on a list is called bagging.

Munro

A Scottish mountain over 3,000 feet (914 metres). They're named after Sir Hugh Munro, who published the first list in 1891, and today there are 282. Climbing them all is called compleating (with that spelling), and the people who have done it are Munroists.

For example: Buachaille Etive Mòr (Stob Dearg) , Ben Nevis , Schiehallion , Ben Lomond

Corbett

A Scottish mountain between 2,500 and 3,000 feet (762 to 914 metres) with at least 500 feet (152 metres) of drop on every side, so each one is a proper standalone hill. There are 222. Plenty of Corbetts are better climbs than their bigger neighbours.

For example: Caisteal Abhail , The Cobbler , Ben Loyal , Goatfell

Graham

A Scottish hill between 2,000 and 2,500 feet (610 to 762 metres) with a drop of at least 150 metres all round. There are 231.

For example: Suilven , Stac Pollaidh , Ben Venue , The Storr

Donald

A hill in the Scottish Lowlands, south of the Highlands, over 2,000 feet (610 metres). The list was drawn up by Percy Donald in the 1930s.

For example: Ben Cleuch, Broad Law, Cairnsmore of Carsphairn, Carlin's Cairn

Marilyn

Any hill in Britain or Ireland, of any height, with at least 150 metres of drop all round. The name is a joke: a play on the Munros and Marilyn Monroe. Because height doesn't matter, the list takes in sea stacks and low island hills as well as big mountains, which makes it a great excuse to visit odd corners of the country.

For example: Stiperstones , Glyder Fawr , Helvellyn , Scafell Pike

Hewitt

A hill in England, Wales or Ireland over 2,000 feet (610 metres) with at least 30 metres of drop. The name spells out the rule: Hills in England, Wales and Ireland over Two Thousand feet.

For example: Cadair Idris , Blencathra , Bowfell , Crib Goch

Nuttall

A hill in England or Wales over 2,000 feet (610 metres) with at least 15 metres of drop, so the list is longer and fussier than the Hewitts. It's named after John and Anne Nuttall, who drew it up.

For example: Great Gable , Pen y Fan , Skiddaw , The Old Man of Coniston

Wainwright

One of the 214 Lake District fells described in Alfred Wainwright's seven hand-drawn Pictorial Guides to the Lakeland Fells, published between 1955 and 1966. His books are still in print and still carried up the fells, and many walkers set out to climb all 214.

For example: Helvellyn , Cat Bells , Haystacks , Hindscarth

Wainwright Outlying Fell

One of the lower, quieter hills around the edge of the Lake District that Wainwright described in a later book, The Outlying Fells of Lakeland. They're good walks for a short day or poor weather.

For example: Pikes , Gummer's How , Orrest Head, Black Combe

County top

The highest point in a county. Some are grand mountains; some are a slight rise in a field or a spot in a wood, which is half the fun of collecting them.

For example: Kinder Scout , Whernside , Yr Wyddfa , The Wrekin

Trig pillartrig point

The squat concrete pillars you find on hilltops. Ordnance Survey built thousands of them from 1936 onwards to map Great Britain accurately, taking angle measurements from one pillar to the next. Satellites made them redundant, but they've become a favourite summit marker, and plenty of walkers collect those too.

For example: Yr Wyddfa

Routes

National Trail

The top tier of long-distance walking routes in England and Wales, funded by government, waymarked with an acorn symbol and kept in good order. The first, the Pennine Way, opened in 1965. Others include the South West Coast Path and Offa's Dyke Path.

For example: Hadrian's Wall Path , Coast to Coast , Pennine Bridleway , Pennine Way

Scotland's Great Trail

Scotland's family of waymarked long-distance routes, 29 of them, from the West Highland Way, which opened in 1980 as Scotland's first, to routes you can do in a long weekend.

For example: Southern Upland Way , Fife Coastal Path , John Muir Way , Great Glen Way

Long-distance path

Any other named walking route that takes more than a day or two, usually looked after by councils, charities or volunteers rather than national funding. Waymarking varies, so a map is a good idea.

For example: Wales Coast Path , Cambrian Way , Hardy Way , Hertfordshire Way

Canal

A waterway dug by hand, most of them between the 1760s and the 1830s, to carry goods by boat before the railways came. Today they're used mostly by narrowboats, walkers and cyclists, and the towpaths make easy, flat walking.

For example: Stratford-upon-Avon Canal , Grand Union Canal , Kennet & Avon Canal , Leeds & Liverpool Canal

River navigation

A natural river made usable by boats, with locks, weirs and short cuts dug to bypass the awkward bits. The difference from a canal is that a navigation mostly follows the river rather than an entirely man-made channel.

For example: River Nene , River Thames , River Trent , River Wye

Ancient sites

Most of these date from the Stone Age (the Neolithic, roughly 4000 to 2500 BC), the Bronze Age (to about 800 BC) and the Iron Age (to the Roman invasion in AD 43).

Stone circle

A ring of standing stones, most of them put up between about 3000 and 1500 BC. Nobody knows for sure what they were for, though many line up with the sunrise or sunset at midsummer or midwinter, and they were probably places for gatherings and ceremonies.

For example: Tomnaverie , Ring of Brodgar , Long Meg and Her Daughters , Mitchell's Fold stone circle

Henge

A round earthwork with a bank and a ditch, where the ditch is on the inside of the bank. That's backwards for defence, which is one reason archaeologists think henges were ceremonial. The word comes from Stonehenge, which, confusingly, doesn't fit the rule, as its ditch is outside the bank.

For example: Ring of Brodgar , Stenness , Bryn Celli Ddu , Knowlton Church and Earthworks

Standing stonemenhir

A single upright stone set up in prehistory, often in a place with a wide view. Some mark burials or boundaries; for most, the purpose is lost.

For example: Maen Llia , The Rudston Monolith , St Breock Downs Monolith, Penrhosfeilw Standing Stones

Stone row

A line of small standing stones, sometimes running for hundreds of metres. Dartmoor has more of them than anywhere else in Britain.

For example: West Kennet Avenue , Merrivale Prehistoric Settlement , Upper Plym Valley, Yar Tor

Chambered tombpassage grave, chambered long barrow

A Stone Age communal grave: a chamber built of big slabs of stone, covered by a mound of earth or stones, where people placed their dead over many generations. Some you can walk right into.

For example: Arthur's Stone , Pentre Ifan , Dwarfie Stane, Hoy , Llugwy Chambered Tomb

Barrowprehistoric mound, tumulus, cairn

A burial mound. Round barrows are mostly Bronze Age and often come in clusters on hilltops and ridges. You'll see them marked as tumuli on Ordnance Survey maps.

For example: Silbury Hill , Hob Hurst's House, Winterbourne Poor Lot Barrows, Flowerdown Barrows

Cursus

A pair of long, parallel banks with ditches, sometimes running for miles, built in the Stone Age. The name is Latin for racecourse, from an 18th-century guess about the one near Stonehenge. Their real purpose is still debated.

For example: Long Meg and Her Daughters , Dorset Cursus, Earth circles, Dorset Cursus, Bottlebush Down

Rock artcup and ring marks

Patterns pecked into natural rock by people in the Neolithic and Bronze Age, most often small cups surrounded by rings. They're common in Northumberland, Yorkshire and Argyll, and easy to miss unless the light is low.

For example: Clava Cairns , Achnabreck Cup & Ring Mark Rocks, Ballygowan Cup & Ring Mark Rocks, Baluachraig Cup & Ring Mark Rocks

Hillfort

A hilltop ringed by banks and ditches, mostly from the Iron Age. Some were defended villages, some were probably seasonal meeting places, and the biggest, like Maiden Castle in Dorset, are vast. Today they're mostly grassy ramparts with superb views.

For example: Maiden Castle , British Camp (Herefordshire Beacon), Pen y Crug, Caer Drewyn

Promontory fort

An Iron Age fort built on a headland or spur, where cliffs or steep slopes protect most sides and only the neck of land needed banks and ditches across it. Many are on the coast.

For example: Burghead Promontory and Well , Black Head Fort, Bolt Tail Camp, Boltby Scar promontory fort

Broch

A tall, round, drystone tower from the Iron Age, found only in Scotland, mostly in the far north and the islands. The walls are hollow, with a staircase inside them. The Broch of Mousa in Shetland still stands over 13 metres high.

For example: Dun Carloway , Jarlshof , Mousa , Aiker Ness, Broch of Gurness

Dun

A Scottish Iron Age fort or fortified homestead, smaller than a hillfort, with thick drystone walls. It's the Gaelic word for fort, and you'll find it in lots of place names beginning Dun-.

For example: Kilpatrick Dun, Torr a'Chaisteal, Arran

Crannog

An artificial island built in a loch or lake as a home, used in Scotland and Ireland from prehistory into the Middle Ages. Many survive as small wooded islands.

For example: The Scottish Crannog Centre , Dun, Eilean Loch Arnol

Souterrainearth house, fogou

An underground passage lined with stone, built in the Iron Age, probably for storage. In Britain, Scotland has the most; in Cornwall they're called fogous.

For example: Ardestie Souterrain, Carlungie Souterrain, Halliggye Fogou, Castlelaw Fort

Pictish stone

A carved stone made by the Picts, the people of north and east Scotland in the centuries after the Romans. They're covered in symbols (animals, crescents, combs and mirrors) whose meaning is still a puzzle, and the later ones also carry Christian crosses.

For example: Aberlemno , Aberlemno churchyard, Abernethy Round Tower, Brandsbutt Stone

Flint mine

Stone Age mine shafts dug down through chalk to reach good flint for axes and tools. At Grime's Graves in Norfolk you can climb down into one.

For example: Grime's Graves

Roman Britain

The Romans ruled much of Britain from AD 43 until around AD 410.

Roman fort

A permanent base for a unit of soldiers, laid out to a standard playing-card shape with barracks, a headquarters and granaries inside stone or turf walls. Many towns grew up around them.

For example: Hardknott Roman fort , Vindolanda , Brougham Castle and Roman fort , Chesters Roman Fort

Roman campmarching camp

A temporary enclosure an army on the move dug for a night or a season. Usually all that's left is a faint bank and ditch, often spotted from the air.

For example: Bagraw Roman camp, Brown Dikes Roman temporary camp, Brown Moor Roman temporary camp, Chapel Rigg Roman temporary camp

Roman villa

A country house at the centre of a farming estate, often with mosaic floors, heating under the floor and its own bath suite. The best let you see the mosaics where they were laid.

For example: Chedworth Roman villa , Fishbourne Roman Palace , Great Witcombe Roman Villa, Beadlam Roman Villa

Frontier wall

The Romans built two walls across northern Britain: Hadrian's Wall from about AD 122, running coast to coast from the Solway to the Tyne, and the turf-built Antonine Wall further north in Scotland, about 20 years later.

For example: Cawfields Roman Wall , Antonine Wall , Birdoswald , Great Chesters

Milecastle

A small fort built every Roman mile along Hadrian's Wall, with a gateway through the wall and room for a handful of soldiers.

For example: Housesteads fort , Harrow's Scar Milecastle, Poltross Burn Milecastle, Birdoswald

Signal station

A Roman watchtower, most famously a chain along the Yorkshire coast built late in Roman rule to warn of raiders coming by sea.

For example: Pike Hill Signal Tower, Scarborough Castle, Ardunie Roman signal station, Kirkhill Roman signal station

Castles, abbeys and churches

Motte and bailey

The earliest kind of Norman castle, thrown up quickly after 1066. The motte is a big earth mound with a tower on top; the bailey is a fenced yard beside it. Most have lost their timber buildings and survive as a steep grassy mound.

For example: Dunster Castle , Bolsover Castle , Kenilworth Castle , Burrow Mump

Ringwork

An early Norman castle made of a ring of bank and ditch, without the mound of a motte.

For example: Helmsley Castle , Kendal Castle, Ludgershall Castle, Bletchingley castle

Tower housepele tower

A fortified home built as a tall stone tower, with the rooms stacked on top of one another. They're everywhere in Scotland and along the English border, where raiding was a way of life for centuries.

For example: Castle Stalker , Craigievar Castle , Smailholm Tower , Black Middens Bastle House

Artillery fort

A low, squat fort built to carry cannon rather than keep out knights, most famously the chain Henry VIII built along the south coast around 1540 when he feared invasion by France and the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles V, who also ruled Spain.

For example: Deal Castle , Walmer Castle and Gardens , Pendennis Castle , Camber Castle

Abbey and priory

Both are communities of monks or nuns. An abbey was headed by an abbot or abbess; a priory by a prior or prioress, and was often smaller or run from a mother house elsewhere. Henry VIII closed every one in England and Wales between 1536 and 1541 (the Dissolution of the Monasteries), sold off the land and stripped the buildings, which is why so many survive as beautiful ruins. In Scotland the abbeys faded away after the Reformation of 1560.

For example: Bolton Priory , Canterbury Cathedral , St Albans Cathedral , Westminster Abbey

Friary

A house of friars: members of orders who lived by preaching and begging in towns rather than shutting themselves away like monks. The main orders were known by the colour of their robes, which is where town names like Greyfriars (Franciscans), Blackfriars (Dominicans) and Whitefriars (Carmelites) come from.

For example: Blackfriars, Gloucester, Greyfriars, Gloucester, Denbigh Friary, Blackfriars, St Andrews

Preceptory

A country estate and base of the crusading orders of knights, the Knights Templar and the Knights Hospitaller, which raised money to support the fighting in the Holy Land.

For example: St John's Commandery, Swingfield, Penhill Knights Templar preceptory, St John's Jerusalem, Charterhouse lead works

Cistercian

An order of monks, known as white monks for their undyed habits, who sought out remote valleys and became great sheep farmers. They built many of Britain's grandest abbeys, including Fountains, Rievaulx and Tintern.

For example: Rievaulx Abbey , Furness Abbey , Byland Abbey , Roche Abbey

Benedictine

The oldest and largest order of monks, known as black monks, following the rule of St Benedict. Many of England's cathedrals, including Canterbury and Durham, were once run by Benedictine monks.

For example: Lindisfarne Priory , Whitby Abbey , Malmesbury Abbey , Abbotsbury Abbey remains

Augustinian

Canons rather than monks: priests living together under a rule, who often ran parish churches and hospitals. They had more houses than any other order in medieval England.

For example: Cartmel Augustinian Priory , St Botolph's Priory, Colchester, Notley Abbey, Thornton Abbey

Carthusian

The strictest of the orders. Each monk lived almost alone in his own small house and garden, meeting the others only for some services. Mount Grace Priory in North Yorkshire has one of these cells rebuilt so you can see how they lived.

For example: Mount Grace Priory , Axholme Carthusian Priory, Beauvale Carthusian Priory, Charterhouse Camp

Cathedral

The main church of a diocese, holding the bishop's throne (the cathedra that gives it its name). Size has nothing to do with it: some cathedrals are smaller than big parish churches.

For example: Gloucester Cathedral , Lincoln Cathedral , Wells Cathedral , Winchester Cathedral

Holy well

A spring or well linked with a saint, often visited for healing. Many are still decorated with offerings, and the tradition of tying cloths to nearby trees survives in places.

For example: Clootie Well , Chalice Well , Dupath Well, St Cybi's Well

Landscape words

Britain's place names are full of old words for hills, water and valleys, many borrowed from the Vikings in the north. A few you'll meet all the time.

For why the land takes these shapes in the first place, from chalk downs to granite tors, see Why Britain looks the way it does.

Fell

A hill or mountain, especially open, unfenced upland in the Lake District and the Pennines. From the Old Norse word fjall.

For example: Blencathra , Ill Bell , Wetherlam , Scafell

Force

A waterfall, in the north of England. From the Old Norse fors.

For example: High Force , Aira Force , Hardraw Force , Ashgill Force

Beck

A stream, in northern England. From the Old Norse bekkr.

For example: Billingham Beck Valley Country Park, Caunton Beck, The Ship Inn (Barnoldby le Beck), Red Beck Top

Gillghyll

A narrow ravine, usually with a stream in it, in northern England.

For example: Gaping Gill , Stock Ghyll Force , Dungeon Ghyll Force , East Gill Force

Tarn

A small mountain lake, often in a hollow scooped out by a glacier.

For example: Blea Tarn , Tarn Hows , Sprinkling Tarn , Devoke Water

Mere

A lake, usually one that's wide compared with its depth. In the Lake District most lakes are meres, waters or tarns: Bassenthwaite Lake is the only one of the main lakes with Lake in its name.

For example: Buttermere , Grasmere , Windermere

Moor

High, open, unfenced land covered in heather, grass or bog, usually grazed by sheep and too wet or poor to farm.

For example: North York Moors , Widecombe-in-the-Moor , Ilkley Moor , Langsett Reservoir & Moors

Downdowns, downland

Rolling chalk hills with short grass, in southern England. It sounds backwards, but the word comes from the Old English dūn, meaning a hill, so the downs are uplands.

For example: South Downs , Watership Down , Brean Down , Kent Downs

Wold

Gently rolling open upland, as in the Cotswolds and the Lincolnshire and Yorkshire Wolds.

For example: Lincolnshire Wolds , Stow-on-the-Wold , Normanby le Wold Viewpoint, St Michael's Church, Garton-on-the-Wolds

Dale

A valley, especially in northern England, from the Old Norse dalr.

For example: Gordale Scar , Dovedale , Ennerdale Water , Borrowdale

Combecoombe

A short valley or a deep hollow in a hillside, common in the South West and on chalk. It's the same word as the Welsh cwm.

For example: Castle Combe , Combesgate Beach, Woolacombe , Burrington Combe , Hollycombe Steam Collection

Tor

A rocky outcrop on top of a hill, especially the granite tors of Dartmoor and Bodmin Moor.

For example: Mam Tor , Glastonbury Tor , Hound Tor , Hound Tor Medieval Village

Edge

A long line of cliffs or a steep escarpment along the side of a hill, like the gritstone edges of the Peak District.

For example: Bamford Edge , Stanage Edge , Wenlock Edge , Curbar Edge

Scar

A cliff or bare rocky face, often limestone, in northern England.

For example: Scar House Reservoir , White Scar Cave , Blackhope Scar, Nab Scar

Pike

A hill with a pointed summit, in northern England.

For example: Langdale Pikes, Whiteless Pike, Esk Pike, Nethermost Pike

Fen

Low, flat, wet land with peat soil, especially in East Anglia, much of it drained for farming since the 1600s.

For example: Wicken Fen , Flag Fen Archaeology Park , Fen Rivers Way, Fen Ditton

Carr

Wet woodland of alder and willow growing on waterlogged ground.

Broad

One of the shallow lakes of the Norfolk and Suffolk Broads. They were dug by people, not made by nature: medieval peat diggings that later flooded.

For example: Broad Haven , Broad Town White Horse , Barton Broad , Hickling Broad

Heath

Open land on poor, sandy soil, covered in heather, gorse and bracken. Britain has lost around 80% of its lowland heath since 1800, and much of what's left is protected.

For example: Lullington Heath, The Mutton at Hazeley Heath , Reigate Heath Windmill , Dunwich Heath

Chine

A steep, narrow ravine cut by a stream through soft cliffs to the sea, found on the Isle of Wight and around Bournemouth.

For example: Bournemouth Alum Chine, Bournemouth Durley Chine, Poole Branksome Chine, Poole Canford Cliffs Chine

Ness

A headland, from the Old Norse nes. Loch Ness is the exception: it takes its name from the River Ness that drains it.

For example: Orford Ness , Dungeness , Tarbat Ness , Barns Ness

Holm

A small island, often in a river or estuary. From the Old Norse holmr.

For example: Dore Holm , Flat Holm , Steep Holm , Holm

Scottish words

Most come from Gaelic, some from Scots or Old Norse.

Loch

Scottish for lake. A sea loch is an arm of the sea running inland.

For example: Loch Ness , Loch an Eilein , Loch Katrine , Loch Lomond

Lochan

A small loch.

For example: Glencoe Lochan , Lochan na h-Achlaise, Sgorr nan Lochan Uaine, Meall Lochan a' Chleirich

Ben

A mountain, from the Gaelic beinn.

For example: Ben Nevis , Ben Lawers , Ben Alder , Ben Avon

Glen

A long, narrow valley. A strath is a wider, flatter one.

For example: Glen Affric , St Nectan's Glen , Glen Etive , Fairlight Glen

Burn

A stream.

For example: Burn o' Vat , Big Burn Waterfall, Burn Moor, Burn Valley Vineyard

Linn

A waterfall, or the deep pool below one.

For example: The Hermitage (Black Linn Falls) , Linn of Dee , Davidson's Linn , Reekie Linn

Corriecoire

A deep bowl carved into a mountainside by a glacier, often with a lochan in the bottom. Wales calls it a cwm.

For example: Corrie Fee , Stob Coire an Laoigh , Stob Coire Easain , Corrie

Sgùrr

A sharp, rocky peak. The Skye Cuillin is full of them.

For example: Sgurr Mor , Sgurr na Lapaich , Sgurr nan Ceathramhnan , Sgurr nan Conbhairean

Bealach

A mountain pass or the low point on a ridge between two summits.

For example: Bealach na Ba , Bealach Cafe

Kyle

A narrow strait between an island and the mainland, from the Gaelic caol.

For example: Kyle of Tongue , Kyle Line , The Plock of Kyle , Kyles of Bute

Firth

A wide sea inlet or estuary, like the Firth of Forth.

For example: Dornoch Firth, East Burra Firth, Aith Voe, Vassa Voe, Cat Firth, West Burra Firth

Machair

Low, grassy plains behind the beaches of the Western Isles, built on windblown shell sand. In early summer they're covered in wild flowers.

For example: South Uist Machair

Geo

A narrow inlet cut into sea cliffs, in Orkney and Shetland. From the Old Norse gjá.

For example: Ramni Geo

Voe

A long, narrow sea inlet in Shetland.

For example: West Voe Beach , Voe, East Burra Firth, Aith Voe, Vassa Voe, Cat Firth

Stacstack

A steep pillar of rock. On the coast that means a sea stack, cut off from the cliffs by the waves, like Stac an Armin and Stac Lee off St Kilda, the two tallest in Britain. Inland, the Gaelic stac also names a steep, craggy hill, like Stac Pollaidh in the far north-west.

For example: Stac Lee , Stac an Armin , Stac Pollaidh , An Ruadh-Stac

Welsh words

Llyn

Welsh for lake.

For example: Llyn Idwal , Llyn Llygad Rheidol , Llynnau Mymbyr , Llyn Crafnant

Afon

A river. Most maps, the Albion Guide included, use English names for the big border rivers, so Afon Gwy is the River Wye and Afon Dyfrdwy the River Dee.

For example: River Wye, River Dee

Cwm

A valley, or a bowl carved out of a mountain by a glacier (the same thing Scotland calls a corrie).

For example: Cwm Idwal and Devil's Kitchen , Llyn Cwm Llwch , Cwm-yr-Eglwys , Parc Cwm Darran

Rhaeadr

A waterfall.

For example: Pistyll Rhaeadr , Swallow Falls (Rhaeadr Ewynnol) , Rhaeadr Cynfal, Rhaeadr Du

Pen

Head, top or summit, as in Pen y Fan.

For example: Pen y Fan , Pen-y-ghent , Pen yr Ole Wen , Pen Llithrig y Wrach

Moel

A bare, rounded hill.

For example: Moel Arthur , Moel Hiraddug , Moel Siabod, Moel Sych

Bwlch

A pass or gap between hills.

For example: Bwlch y Groes , Bwlch Nant yr Arian , Plas Tan y Bwlch, Bwlch y Geuffordd Gardens

Carn and carnedd

A cairn, a pile of stones, and so often a hilltop with one on it.

For example: Carn a' Choire Bhoidheach , Carn Eighe , Carn Mor Dearg , Carnedd Dafydd

Mynydd

A mountain, or a stretch of upland moor.

For example: Capel Soar y Mynydd , Mynydd Moel, Mynydd Carningli, Mynydd Cilan

Nant

A stream or brook, and the small valley it runs through.

For example: Nant Ffrancon Pass , Nant-y-moch Reservoir , Morfa and Nant Bach, Nant-y-Bedd Garden

Aber

A river mouth or confluence, as in Aberystwyth, the mouth of the Ystwyth. Barmouth's Welsh name, Abermaw, comes from the mouth of the Mawddach.

For example: Mawddach Estuary , Aber Falls , Aberffraw Bay , Aberdaron

Porth

A harbour or cove.

For example: Porthcurno , Porth Ceiriad , Porth Dafarch , Porth Joke

Ynys

An island.

For example: RSPB Ynys-hir , Ynys Tywyn, Ynys Leurad Hut Circles

Eryri and Bannau Brycheiniog

The Welsh names for Snowdonia and the Brecon Beacons, which both National Parks now use in English too. Yr Wyddfa is Snowdon itself.

For example: Eryri , Bannau Brycheiniog , Yr Wyddfa