Welsh Marilyns

The Welsh Marilyns is the latest Club project to supplement  the regular walk programme. Starting in 2023,  on Hope Mountain, with the aim of climbing all the 159 Welsh Marilyn peaks over a period of several years.  The Welsh Marilyn walks will be incorporated into the regular walk programme plus a series of Club weekends.  

What is a Marilyn?
A Marilyn is simply defined as a hill within Great Britain or Ireland with a prominence of 150 metres or more regardless of height. Hill prominence refers to the relative height compared to surrounding hills.

The lowest Welsh Marilyn peak is Mynydd Enlli (on Bardsey Island) at 167m. The highest is Snowdon/Yr Wyddfa at 1085m. The range of heights gives plenty of scope for Green, Blue and Red walks.

Why are these hills called Marilyns? (acknowledgements to the Relative Hill Society)
Alan Dawson first defined Marilyns in his 1992 Cicerone Book The Relative Hills of Britain. In his book, the author contrasts Marilyns with previously defined hill lists such as the Munros, which are based on the assumption that hills on a list must be a certain height above sea level with a subjective assessment of different peaks by the list originator.

Alan has said that Marilyns are an intentional pun reference to Munros based on the film star, ‘Marilyn Monroe’, although he doesn’t expand on this in the book. Draw your own conclusions.

In The Relative Hills of Britain, Dawson explains that “In Britain, 500 feet is significant, and seems a good measure of what makes a separate Hill or Mountain – it feels right”.

Record your progress
You can download your own app to record your progress on bagging the Welsh Marilyns. The Y Marilyns app is avaialable for Apple IoS and Android devices.

Y Marilyns for Apple IoS

Y Marilyns for Android – Google Play