Wherever you find yourself in the UK--among the Munros of Scotland, the fens of East Anglia, the rolling moors of the west-country or the suburban sprawl of of a big city, there's a county top on your doorstep waiting to be discovered.
Ranging from 80 m Boring Field in Huntingdonshire to 1344 m Ben Nevis in Inverness-shire, the 91 tops of the historic counties of the UK are a sundry collection of hills and mountains spanning the length and breadth of England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Some rank among the finest summits in the UK: Ben Lomond, Helvellyn, Pen y Fan Cheviot, Scafell Pike, Slieve Donard and Worcestershire Beacon. Others are less known, appearing in strange and wonderful places: A military firing zone in Yorkshire, the tundra plateau of the Cairngorms and a back garden in south-east London. Every county top has its own story, whether it is the mystery of the Grey Man of Macdui on Ben Macdui, the Mass Trespass of 1932 on Kinder Scout or the devastating wartime death toll on Shropshire's Brown Clee Hill.
Author Jonny Muir was the first person to visit them all in one 5000-mile cycling and walking adventure, over a three-month period, and he shares his preferred routes, gradings and lots of incidental facts and figures for each one here.
Overview map
Introduction
- The historic counties
- Defining a county top
- Using this guide
- Getting there
- Safety in the hills
ENGLAND
Introduction
1 Cornwall - Brown Willy 420 m
2 Devon - High Willhays 621 m
3 Somerset - Dunkery Beacon 519 m
4 Dorset - Lewesdon Hill 279 m
5 Sussex - Black Down 280 m
6 Surrey - Leith Hill 294 m
7 Kent - Betsom's Hill 251 m
8 Middlesex - Bushey Heath 153 m
9 Bedfordshire - Dunstable Downs 243 m
10 Buckinghamshire - Haddington Hill 267 m / Hertfordshire - Pavis Wood 244 m
11 Berkshire - Walbury Hill 297 m / Hampshire - Pilot Hill 286 m
12 Oxfordshire - Bald Hill 257 m
13 Wiltshire - Milk Hill 295 m
14 Gloucestershire - Cleeve Common 330 m
15 Herefordshire - Black Mountain 703 m
16 Worcestershire - Worcestershire Beacon 425 m
17 Warwickshire - Ebrington Hill 261 m
18 Northamptonshire - Arbury Hill 225 m
19 Shropshire - Brown Clee Hill 540 m
20 Staffordshire - Cheeks Hill 520 m
21 Leicestershire - Bardon Hill 278 m
22 Derbyshire - Kinder Scout 636 m
23 Nottinghamshire - Silverhill 205 m
24 Rutland - Cold Overton Park 197 m
25 Huntingdonshire - Boring Field 80 m
26 Cambridgeshire - Great Chishill 146 m / Essex - Chrishall Common 147 m
27 Suffolk - Great Wood 128 m
28 Norfolk - Beacon Hill 105 m
29 Lincolnshire - Normanby Top 168 m
30 Cheshire - Black Hill 582 m
31 Lancashire - The Old Man of Coniston 803 m
32 Durham - Burnhope Seat 746 m
33 Yorkshire - Mickle Fell 788 m
34 Cumberland - Scafell Pike 978 m
35 Westmorland - Helvellyn 950 m
36 Northumberland - The Cheviot 815 m$
WALES
Introduction
37 Flintshire - Moel Famau 562 m
38 Anglesey - Holyhead Mountain 220 m
39 Caernarvonshire - Snowdon 1085 m
40 Denbighshire - Cadair Berwyn 830 m / Montgomeryshire - Moel Sych 827 m
41 Merionethshire - Aran Fawddwy 907 m
42 Cardiganshire - Plynlimon 752 m
43 Pembrokeshire - Foel Cwmcerwyn 536 m
44 Carmarthenshire - Fan Foel 781 m
45 Glamorgan - Craig y Llyn 600 m
46 Brecknockshire - Pen y Fan 886 m
47 Monmouthshire - Chwarel y Fan 679 m
48 Radnorshire - Great Rhos 660 m
SCOTLAND
Introduction
49 Roxburghshire - Hangingstone Hill 743 m
50 East Lothian - Meikle Says Law 535 m / Berwickshire - Meikle Says Law south shoulder 532 m
51 West Lothian - Cairnpapple Hill 312 m
52 Midlothian - Blackhope Scar 651 m
53 Lanarkshire - Culter Fell 748 m
54 Peeblesshire and Selkirkshire - Broad Law 840 m
55 Dumfriesshire - White Coomb 821 m
56 Ayrshire - Kirriereoch Hill shoulder 781 m / Kirkcudbrightshire - Merrick 843 m
57 Wigtownshire - Craigairie Fell 321 m
58 Buteshire - Goatfell 874 m
59 Renfrewshire - Hill of Stake 522 m
60 Stirlingshire - Ben Lomond 974 m
61 Dunbartonshire - Ben Vorlich 943 m
62 Perthshire - Ben Lawers 1214 m
63 Clackmannanshire - Ben Cleuch 721 m
64 Kinross - Innerdouny Hill 497 m
65 Fife - West Lomond 522 m
66 Kincardineshire - Mount Battock 778 m
67 Angus - Glas Maol 1068 m
68 Aberdeenshire and Banffshire - Ben Macdui 1309 m
69 Morayshire - Carn a' Ghille Chearr 710 m
70 Nairnshire - Carn Glas-choire 659 m
71 Argyll - Bidean Nam Bian 1150 m
72 Inverness-shire - Ben Nevis 1344 m
73 Ross and Cromarty - Carn Eige 1183 m
74 Sutherland - Ben More Assynt 998 m
75 Caithness - Morven 706m
76 Orkney - Ward Hill 479 m
77 Shetland - Ronas Hill 450 m
NORTHERN IRELAND
Introduction
78 County Down - Slieve Donard 853 m
79 County Armagh - Slieve Gullion 576 m
80 County Fermanagh - Cuilcagh 666 m
81 County Londonderry and County Tyrone - Sawel Mountain 678 m
82 County Antrim - Trostan 550 m
Appendix 1 The UK's historic county tops by height
Appendix 2 The present-day county tops of England, Wales and Scotland by height
Jonny Muir first visited the UK's 91 historic county tops in a continuous 5000-mile cycling and walking adventure over a three-month period in 2006. A journalist for six years at newspapers in Cheltenham, Peterborough and Inverness, he now works as an English teacher in London.