Monday 13 February 2017

Change Register - The 500-Metre Tops of Ireland


Change Register

The 500-Metre Tops of Ireland


The 500-Metre Tops of Ireland are the Irish hills at or above 500m and below 609.6m (2,000ft) in height that have a minimum drop of 30m.  The list is co-authored by Michael Dewey and Myrddyn Phillips with each having produced a version of the list independent of the other.  Michael’s list originated in 1998 and comprised 186 hills, whilst Myrddyn’s list originated in 2000 and comprised 191 hills with a further 29 hills listed in a sub list entitled ‘Hills that need on the spot surveying with the prospect of being future additions’, this sub list forms the basis of the 500m Subs that now accompanies the main P30 list.

The list produced by Myrddyn was sent to a number of people including Michael Dewey and the Mountaineering Council of Ireland (now named Mountaineering Ireland).  Having produced versions of the same list the two authors combined each and decided to produce one co-authored list.  Data were re-evaluated and the updated co-authored list was sent to the Mountaineering Council of Ireland and later formed the lower height band of the list that appeared on the fledging MountainViews website in 2002, this list was later named the Arderins in 2009, with the higher height band of this list using data from the late Joss Lynam’s 600m Irish list.    

The 500-Metre Tops of Ireland listing was next fully re-evaluated with assistance from Jim Bloomer prior to it being published on the Hill Bagging website on 1st June 2011, and it was then published in the downloadable Access and Excel versions (v12.0) of the Database of British and Irish Hills (DoBIH) on 27th November 2011. 

Although the criteria has remained the same the list has changed greatly since its first publication with the advent of independent surveyors enabling greater accuracy for numerical data, and the meticulous research conducted by Paul Tempan and incorporated by MountainViews, the listing also now incorporates three Sub categories, the aforementioned 500m Subs, the 490m Subs and the 490m Double Subs.

It seems fitting that the list of The 500-Metre Tops of Ireland should now benefit from a detailed Change Register, and although the majority of updates to this list took place when the two versions were originally combined in 2000, it is prudent for this Change Register to initially detail the changes to the list since the 2011 publication by the Hill Bagging website.

The Change Register to The 500-Metre Tops of Ireland appears below with the reclassifications to the main P30 list being detailed chronologically in receding order.




Change Register

The 500-Metre Tops of Ireland





Corcóg    611.1m at L 95262 49137 

The details of this hill’s deletion from The 500-Metre Tops of Ireland list and its reclassification to The Hewitts of Ireland list was announced on Mapping Mountains on the 21.07.20, with a subsequent Hill Reclassifications post published on Mapping Mountains on the 09.12.20.  Prior to this the hill was listed with a 609m summit height based on the spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey of Ireland 1:50,000 Discovery map 45.  Its deletion is due to a survey conducted by Bluesky resulting in a 611.1m summit height.  The 500-Metre Tops of Ireland total decreases by one and confirmed as 199.






Common Mountin    499.7m at G 70918 85943

At the summit of Common MOuntain (G 709 859)

The details of this hill’s reclassification from the The 500-Metre Tops of Ireland list to the The 400-Metre Tops of Ireland list was announced on Mapping Mountains in a Hill Reclassifications post on the 16.05.20, and is due to a Trimble GeoXH 6000 survey conducted by Michael Critchley on the 13.11.19, resulting in a 499.7m summit height.  The 500-Metre Tops of Ireland total decreases by one and confirmed as 200.






Knocknaveacal North Top    509.1m at V 74438 56269

The first hill to be reclassified from the main P30 list to the 500m Subs list, and its reclassification was announced on the Mapping Mountains site on 06.11.15, the hill was previously listed as a 500m P30 based on the 513m summit spot height that appears on the Ordnance Survey of Ireland 1:50,000 Discovery Series map 84 and an interpolated col height of c 482m, which gave this hill a listed drop of c 31m.  The hill was subsequently surveyed by John Fitzgerald on the 30.05.15 with a Trimble GeoXH 6000 resulting in a 509.1m summit height and 482.6m col height, the surveyed drop of 26.5m is insufficient for this hill’s retention in The 500-Metre Tops of Ireland list and it is now reclassified to a 500m SubThe 500-Metre Tops of Ireland total decreases by one and confirmed as 201.




27th November 2011 – Database of British and Irish Hills publishes The 500-Metre Tops of Ireland. 

The 500-Metre Tops of Ireland total confirmed as 202.




1st June 2011 – Hill Bagging publishes The 500-Metre Tops of Ireland. 

The 500-Metre Tops of Ireland total confirmed as 202.






Michael Dewey and Myrddyn Phillips (February 2017)



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