The Marilyns.
The Marilyns transformed how Britain's hills are listed. Rather than judging a hill by its height, Alan Dawson ranked them by prominence — how far you must descend before you can climb anything higher — and defined a Marilyn as any hill, of any height, with at least 150 m of drop on all sides. The name is a gentle joke at the Munros' expense (Marilyn Monroe answering Hugh Munro). The idea proved hugely influential: it captures the hills that genuinely stand out, from major mountains to isolated coastal humps, and they are counted across Britain. Climbing them all is a lifetime's undertaking spanning the whole country; only the Lakeland Marilyns appear here.
Alan Dawson is a hill-bagger and writer who introduced the prominence-based approach to British hill lists in The Relative Hills of Britain (1992). The book launched a whole family of “relative hills” lists and an active community of baggers, and the Marilyns remain the most followed of them.
Marilyns map
Every summit on this list plotted from its recorded position. Click a marker to open that fell’s guide — the map follows the search and filters below, and ticked tops show in the accent colour.
Browse all 46 Marilyns
Search by name, filter by height band, and tick off the tops as you bag them. Progress is saved on this device.
This page lists the 46 fells on this list that have a guide on the site — not the full list across Britain. New to the lists? See how the fell lists differ.
Beyond the Lake District
5 Marilyns outside the Lake District have a guide here. They are not counted in the figures above.