Comments and suggestions are welcome.
The current database version is 2.3. See "Database Versions and Updates" for more
information.
GBHills is a site which will help you to find information about
British hills and mountains, and to keep records about those you have
climbed. Record-keeping can be a tedious business and there are a
number of features to make this easier. You can find information
about updates and changes here.
The key information in the database comes from Crocker and Jackson's excellent "Database of British Hills" on their "Statistical Topics in Hillwalking" site. I have used this with only trivial changes to provide the basic data about the hills - names, heights, grid references and classifications. My thanks to the authors for permission to do this; my intention is to incorporate changes as they appear since I cannot hope to match their efforts in comprehensiveness or accuracy.
Crocker and Jackson provide their data in Excel and Access formats, and if you can use Access, the latter provides a good way of querying the data in a flexible way. GBHills, though probably less powerful, does not require any special tools, and if you store your data on it you can share it with other people if you wish. You can also view photographs of some of the hills.
GBHills will answer questions like:
You can also view a map of the area around any hill.However, the primary purpose of GBHills is to assist in record-keeping. If you record your own ascents in GBHills, you can also ask questions like:
You can also ask the same questions about somebody else's ascents if they have recorded them and given you access to their data.(See below for instructions on how to ask all these questions).
Anybody can use GBHills and record their own data in it.
However, there are some reservations:
The first screen on GBHills gives you four options:
Once you have connected or logged on, you get to the main query
screen. This has a set of option buttons in a pane along the top,
a query form in the bottom left, and an introductory message and a
picture on the bottom right.
Do a simple search by entering "nevis" (no quotes) in the name box
at the top of the query form and clicking Submit. With the initial
settings on the form, this will bring up information about Ben Nevis in
the bottom right pane, along with any ascents you may have made of
it. If you click the name of the mountain, you will get a
window showing you more information about it including a link to a map
of the area from Streetmap.com and (in this case) to a photo.
As described above, the main query screen has three panes, one at the top and two below. The two bottom ones are used for searching and viewing results. When viewing results, you can add or edit ascents, provided you are viewing your own ones (see below). The window title shows the username of the current user and the user whose ascents are being viewed.
The top pane presents a number of buttons which guide you to some of
the auxiliary features of GBHills:
Searching is done using the search form in the bottom left pane of
the main screen. There are quite a number of search options, and
if you specify several at once, you only get answers which satisfy ALL
of them (AND logic) (but see Mun, Top, Cor etc below).
If you click any of the labels on the search form you will get a
popup to tell you what the field is for and how to enter data. Not
very elegant, but it seems to work in most browsers.
At present the search options are:
symbol (on the search form, not here) to get a list of all the
abbreviations. They are similar to but not the the same as
those used by Crocker and Jackson. Enter the letters for the hills
you want to see in any order with no spaces. Once again OR logic
applies (see above). If there is a type you do NOT wish to see,
enter a "!" before the appropriate character.For convenience, the following more specialist search types are
displayed below the Submit and Reset buttons.
symbol
(on the search form not here) to get a list of all the different
combinations which exist in the database.For simplicity, all these assume you start from the initial state of the search form, which you can get to by clicking Reset. The first set of questions concerns hills only and if you have a lot of ascents you may get more concise anwers selecting "Hills" in the Show dropdown list.
How many Munros (or Corbetts or Marilyns etc) are there?
Ensure the Mun hill type box is checked. Ideally select "Summary" in the Show dropdown list and click Submit. The answer is 284. For other hill types check the appropriate type box or for the more esoteric types enter the abbreviation in the Types box (e.g. R for Murdos).
Wiich Corbetts are in the Cairngorms area?
Check the Cor type box and uncheck Mun. Enter "cairngorm" in the Area text box and click Submit. There are nine answers.
Which Munros are over 1100 metres high?
Ensure the Mun type box is checked, enter 1100 in the Height min box, select Hills in the Show dropdown list and click Submit. There are 50 answers, so if you want to see tham all, you must enter 50 or more in the "Max to List" box.Which hills, in order of height, are close to Ben Cruachan
(say within 10 km)?
Enter "cruachan" in the name box and click Submit. Note the
Hill Number (232) of Ben Cruachan. Click Reset on the search form
and enter 232 and 10 in the "Near to, dist" boxes. Because you
are looking for all hills, uncheck the Mun type box, so all are
blank.. Click Submit. There are 17 answers, listed by
default in order of height.
Which Munros are not Marilyns?
Enter "M!A" in the Types box and click Submit. There are 79
answers. You can exclude the single Munro Twin Marilyn by entering
M!A!T. Note that at present it is not possible to ask the inverse
question "Which Munros are also Marilyns" directly, because if you
click Mun and Mar or enter MA in the Types box, you will see answers
which are either Munros or Marilyns.
Which are the most easterly Munros?
Ensure the Mun type box is checked, select "East" in the Sort by
dropdown list and click Submit. The first answer should be Mount
Keen. You could also do this search by entering the Hill Number
of a Munro you know to be reasonably far East (e.g. Lochnagar, Hill
457) in the First "Limits West, East" box and clicking Submit.
This will give you 3 answers.
Which Marilyns are on OS 1:50000 sheet 75 (Berwick-upon-Tweed)?
The easiest way is to check the "Mar" checkbox and ensure the other Types checkboxes are cleared. Then enter the absolute grid coordinates in metres given at the corners of the map in the four "Limits South, North" and "Limits East, West" boxes, thus: 620000, 660000, 390000, 430000. This gives three hills including the Cheviot.
What is the furthest place in Britain from a hill (in the database) of any kind?
You can't do this directly. However, the answer is likely to
be on the East Anglian coast, and you can do it by trial and error by
unchecking all the Types boxes and entering candidate grid references in
the first "Near to, dist" box and a decent value (say 200) in the
second. Sort by Distance and click Submit. This will give
you the nearest hills to your grid reference, which you can then
refine. My answer is close to the bus station in Great
Yarmouth, which is 166 km from the Wolds and Detling Hill.
How many hills of each type have I climbed?
Select "Summary" in the Show dropdown list and enter 1 in the first
"Ascents min,max" box (i.e. at least one ascent). Ensure one of
the Types boxes is checked and click Submit. Repeat for each
different type.
When did I climb Schiehallion and what happened?
Enter "schiehallion" in the name box and click Submit. You
should see a list of your ascents with dates, and any comments you have
recorded about them. If you are doing this search for a hill which
is not a Munro, make sure the appropriate Type box is checked (or all
are unchecked).
Which Hills (of any type) did I climb before 1990?
Ensure none of the type boxes is checked and that there is nothing in the Types box.. Enter "1-Jan-90" in "Asc before". Click Submit. You will see answers in order of height by default.
Which Munros did I climb for the second time in 2002?
Ensure the Mun box is checked and enter 2 in both the "Asc No"
boxes. Enter "1-Jan-02" in the "Asc since" box, "1-Jan-03" in
"Asc before". Optionally select Hills in the Show dropdown list.
Click Submit.
Which Munros or Munro Tops within 10 km of Ben Alder have I NOT climbed?
Enter "Alder" in the Name box and click submit. Note the Hill Number (345) of Ben Alder. Click Reset on the search form and enter 345 and 10 in the "Near to, dist" boxes. Ensure the Mun and Top boxes are checked and enter 0 in the second "Ascents min, max" box. Click Submit. You can sort by distance from Ben Alder if you wish.When you do a search you get the results in the bottom right-hand
pane next to the search form. What you see depends on the contents
of the Show box on the search form. By default you will get a
list of up to 20 rows of data which will include hills and any ascents
you have made of them. If there is more data than is shown, there
will be a message to this effect. At the end you always get a
summary of the totals for the whole search (not just the answers
shown). You can see more answers by altering the "Max to list"
box on the search form.
For each hill, a number of the more important data items is shown.
If you click the name of a hill, you will get a "Hill Info" window
showing more details about that hill (see below) You can get the
same information about several hills by checking the boxes next to them
(not the ascents) and clicking the "Hill Info" button. In either
case you will get a new window showing all the information in the
database about that hill (including the height in feet) and containing
links to maps and photos (see below).
The Hill Info window contains a "Streetmap map" option which will
bring up a map from Streetmap.co.uk with the hill indicated by an arrow.
The initial presentation may vary, but at the time of writing it is an
uncluttered 3x3 km section of a 1:50000 OS map. It is possible to zoom
in or out or to increase the size of the map.
Hill info also contains the links to any photographs of the hill which are stored with the database. The purpose of these is to give walkers an idea of what the hill is like and perhaps how it is climbed, rather than to achieve artistic excellence. At the time of writing, there are only about 50 photos, mainly in the Cairngorms annd mainly taken by me. To save space and to reduce download time they are limited to 400 pixels wide and about 30 Kb in size.
The photo shown on the welcome screen after logging on is selected at random from a subset of these photos.This is really the primary purpose of the database. You can
record which hills you have climbed and when, and (if you wish) other
information about the expedition such as who you went with or what the
weather was like. You can keep this information private or share
it with others. For better or worse I have opted to make my own
ascents public, and you can choose to view and search them using
the options button.
The normal situation when you want to record ascents is that you have been on an expedition, possibly with somebody else, and climbed one or more hills in a given area.
To record an ascent for yourself, you first need to locate the hill
in the database. This can easily be done by searching for the name
of the hill. If you have climbed several near together, use the
Hill Number with the "Near to" search to get a list which will include
all of them (don't forget to clear the name box and set the
appropriate Type boxes). If your walk was in a reasonably straight
line, sorting the answers by "East" or "North" should give the hills
in the order you climbed them, which can be helpful.
Once you have the hill(s) displayed, click the checkbox for each
hill you have climbed and click the "New Ascents" button. This
takes you to another window which gives you the details of each hill and
allows you to record the date of your ascent (in a format like
1-may-2003) and an optional comment. You can add a time to
the date. When you have finished, click the Submit button.
Each set of data on this screen has a "Row Number". If
you make any errors (most likely in the date format), you will get
error messages on the next screen giving the row numbers of where they
have occurred. You can then click Retry to get the entry form back
and make corrections. If there are no errors, the new ascents will
be added to the database.
For simplicity, if I have climbed a number of hills in a day, I
often describe the expedition (weather, companions etc) against one of
the hills and refer to that hill for the others; it is easy then to
recall the whole expedition by looking at the ascents for that day.
If you want to change the details of one or more ascents, do a search for them and check the boxes beside them (not beside the hill) and click the Edit Ascents button. Change the details as necessary and click Submit. Not that you can NOT change the identity of the hill you have climbed. To do this you will need to delete the ascent and re-record it against the other hill.
To delete an ascent, search for it and check the box beside the ascent (not the hill). Click the "Delete Ascents" button. The ascent details will be displayed to you and you will be asked to confirm the deletion before it is done.
To save your ascents use the "Other" button at the top of the main
screen. Click "Save" on the ensuing screen. After a short
time you will get a message saying the data has been saved in a
file on the server. Follow the instructions to transfer it
to your computer.
If you want to be sure the data has transferred without corruption,
you can attempt to restore it (see below). After you have clicked
the Send button, you should get a message saying that the file is
unchanged since it was saved and that no errors have been found.
There is no need to complete the Continue button to restore the
data (it should change nothing); just click Cancel.
To restore ascents, again use the "Other" button on the main screen,
but click "Load" on the ensuing one. Enter the name of the file
(on your computer) you wish to restore, or more likely use the Browse
button to locate it. Then click the "Send" button. This
transfers the file to the server and checks it thoroughly. You
will be notified if the file has changed since it was saved (this
would happen if you had made changes manually with an editor), and if
any errors have been found. If there are no problems you will
be asked to confirm the replacement of ALL your ascent data with the
saved data.
It is possible to restore ascents saved by one user to another user
account. Note however that the new ascents completely overwrite
whatever was there brfore.
Though it is unlikely to be particularly useful, it is possible to
edit a saved file with a text editor or a spreadsheet. The data is
saved in a text file in tab-delimited format, i.e. the fields are
separated by TAB characters. Here is a brief example:
GBHills Saved Data
DBVer: 2.0 User: dbb DLTime: 25-Jun-2003 14:19 FilVer: 1
Hill Name GR Metres Types Date Comment
957 Beinn Alligin - Sgurr Mhor NG865612 986 AMR 18-May-2002 Fine
968 Beinn Alligin - Tom na Gruagaich NG859601 922 AMR 18-May-2002 Fine
1050 Fionn Bheinn NH147621 933 AMR 19-May-2002 Fine; wonderful view
695 Beinn Sgritheall NG836126 974 AMR 02-Jun-2002 Good view
705 Beinn Sgritheall NW Top NG834131 928 Tr 02-Jun-2002
Checksum: 81C1A4C4
The first three non-blank lines are in a fixed format and should not
be changed. They identify the file to the system as a saved data
file and provide version information to help it do the upload. The
checksum (which will be wrong in this case) tells the system whether the
file has been changed since it was downloaded.
Note that blank lines and lines beginning with a semicolon character
are ignored. You can use this to add documentation if you make any
changes.
Each user (apart from the anonymous user) has their own area in the database where their ascents can be recorded. This information can be shared with other users, either individually or globally.
By default nobody can see your ascents, but you can share the
information, either individually or globally with other users. To
do this, click the Options button at the top of the main screen.
The ensuing screen in the bottom right pane has a section
which displays those who can see your ascents, and below it an area
where you can specify others. Enter the usernames of new
users you wish to authorise, or check the box which authorises
everybody. If you don't know the username, you can use the
"List all Users" button at the botttom of the form. To reduce the
size of the list this will produce, you can enter a clue which will be
searched for in the username and the full name as entered by that
user - for example if you know the user is called Harry, use
harry as the clue. Note that once you've found it, you still have
to type the username onto the options form - you can't transfer it
automatically.
If you want to remove an existing authorisation for somebod (or
everybody), uncheck the box next to that name.
When you are satisfied with your changes , click the Submit botton
near the bottom of the form.
If you have forgotten your password, send me an Email (address at the top of this page) from the email address which you have stored in the database, giving your username, your name and optionally a password you would like me to use. I will reset the password and reply to you. If you don't specify a password, I will choose one. If you haven't stored your email address, I can't help you.
Effect of Updates on Users' Ascent data
Changes of minor version will not affect users' ascent data,
which is recorded against the Hill Number. In the relatively unlikely event
of a major version change, ascent data stored in the database will be
automatically updated to reflect this, and stored ascent files from previous major
versions will be converted on upload. If a hill disappears
completely (this should not happen) then ascents of that hill will also
disappear.
These are fully described in Crocker and Jackson's database notes under Definitions