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Map of Marilyns in the British Isles

A Marilyn is a mountain or hill in the British Isles (including Ireland) with a relative height of at least 150 metres (492 ft), regardless of absolute height or other merit. The name was coined as an ironic contrast to the designation Munro, used of a Scottish mountain with a height of more than 3,000 feet, which is homophonous with (Marilyn) Monroe.

There are currently 1554 Marilyns identified in Great Britain and surrounding islands: 1214 in Scotland, 179 in England 156 in Wales and 5 on the Isle of Man. (Black Mountain, on the border between England and Wales, was formerly counted in both countries but is now treated as being in Wales only.) There are a further 453 in Ireland (66 in Northern Ireland and the remainder in the Republic of Ireland). The list of Marilyns in Britain was compiled by Alan Dawson in his book The Relative Hills of Britain,^[1] and continues to change as the Ordnance Survey brings out new maps with revised heights for hills and the passes between them. The list was extended into Ireland by Clem Clements in a booklet, The Hewitts and Marilyns of Ireland.^[2]

Many of the largest hills are Marilyns, including Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon. On the other hand, many large hills, including some Munros, and other well-known hills such as Bowfell, the Langdale Pikes and Carnedd Dafydd, are not Marilyns because they do not meet the relative height criterion. However, some infrequently-visited or lower hills such as Seatallan and Watch Hill on the edges of Lakeland and the Long Mynd in Shropshire do qualify because of their isolation from higher peaks. Not all of the Marilyns are even hills in the usual sense: one lies within the East Sussex town of Crowborough, whilst the top of the Yorkshire Wolds, Bishop Wilton Wold lies alongside the A166 road. At the other extreme are Stac Lee and Stac an Armin, the two highest sea stacks in the British Isles, in the St. Kilda archipelago, over 81 miles (130 km) west of the Scottish mainland.

In Scotland Marilyns tend to be sidelined by other lists of hills based primarily on absolute height, such as the Munros, Corbetts, Grahams and Donalds, though all the Corbetts and Grahams and about two-thirds of the Munros and half the Donalds are also Marilyns. Some hillwalkers attempt to climb as many Marilyns as possible as a form of peak bagging. Some radio amateurs attempt to operate from the summit of every Marilyn.^[3] As of 2007, no one has completed the list; however, five people are only five short of completing the Great Britain list (because of the inaccessibility of five of the St Kilda Marilyns).^[4]

• Hill lists in the British Isles
• List of mountains of the British Isles by relative height — a list of the top 119 Marilyns by relative height.

• Marilyn News Centre
• Lakes24 24 Marilyns in 24 hours in the English Lake District

1. ^ Dawson, Alan (1992). The Relative Hills of Britain. Milnthorpe, Cumbria: Cicerone Press. ISBN 1-85284-068-4. 
2. ^ Clements, E.D. 'Clem' (1998). The Hewitts and Marilyns of Ireland. Cambuskenneth, Stirling: TACit Press. ISBN 0-9522680-8-6. 
3. ^ Summits on the Air (2006). Retrieved on 2006-01-12.
4. ^ Dawson, Alan (2007). Marilyn Hall of Fame. Retrieved on 2007-05-04.