Landmarks (17 page)
Authors: Robert Macfarlane
| barrow | burial mound of earth or stones raised over a grave (Neolithic barrows tend to be lozenge-shaped; Bronze Age barrows tend to be round) English, especially southern and eastern England |
| càirn | burial mound of stones raised over a grave Gaelic |
| catacomb | underground cemetery, usually galleried and with recesses for tombs English |
| ciste | burial chamber or coffin made of stone or a hollowed-out tree Gaelic |
| creeg | burial mound Cornish |
| cromlech | megalithic tomb consisting of a large flat stone laid on upright ones Welsh |
| dolmen | megalithic tomb consisting of a large flat stone laid on upright ones Breton |
| fogou | artificial cave, earth-house or covered tunnel Cornwall |
| kirkasukken | buried dead (as distinguished from those who have a watery grave – those drowned at sea) Shetland |
| lowe | grave-mound Midlands |
| mole-country | graveyard Suffolk |
| quoit | flat capstone or covering stone topping a cromlech or dolmen Cornwall |
| souterrain | underground chamber or passage archaeological |
| tuaim | burial mound Irish |
| tumulus | burial mound, usually of earth; sepulchral hillock or knoll Middle English |
| undercroft | crypt, vault or subterraneum, especially one beneath a church or chapel southern England |
| adit | roughly horizontal passage introduced into a mine for the purpose of access or drainage mining |
| arse-loop | rope chair used when repairing shafts Pitmatical (north-east England) |
| bell-pit | bell-shaped shaft mining |
| breast-hee | mouth of a tunnel which has been made into the side of a hill, the shaft being horizontal rather than vertical Lancashire |
| bunny hole | entrance to a mine Cornwall |
| camouflet | subterranean cavity formed by a bomb exploding beneath the surface of the earth military |
| canch | stone that is above or below a seam of coal and that has to be removed to reach the coal Pitmatical (north-east England) |
| coffen , mungler | open mine, quarry Cornish |
| dumble-hole | derelict clay-pit or quarry north Herefordshire |
| flash | water body, often large, formed in areas where coal mining took place and subsidence has since occurred geographical |
| fossick | to search for something by rummaging, to prospect for minerals (from Cornish feusik , meaning ‘fortunate’) Cornwall |
| grass | ground level for a mine Cornwall |
| gruff | mine south-west England |
| gruffy ground | remnant landscape of former lead mining Somerset |
| gwag | hollow space in a mine (from Cornish gwag , meaning ‘empty’) Cornwall |
| horod | Irish navvy slang for the path leading to a tunnel or mine mouth Somerset |
| hull | underground shed Cornwall |
| hushing | process of damming water and releasing it to assist with the extraction of minerals, especially lead ores, in the uplands. Hushes are the small V-shaped valleys, remains of dams and heaps of spoil that this process leaves behind mining |
| leat | open watercourse in or near a mine Cornwall, Devon |
| monek | mineral-rich ground Cornish |
| scumfished | feeling suffocated at depth in a mine Pitmatical (north-east England) |
| stenak | tin-rich terrain Cornish |
| sump | dip in the floor of a mine or cave in which water collects mining |
| wheal | mine-works Cornwall |
| yeo | a stream or drain (in mining) south-west England |
| berry | group of rabbit holes having internal communication Exmoor |
| cave-pearls | pearl-like pebbles of calcium carbonate that form around flecks or specks of grit speleological |
| choke | jumble of boulders requiring careful negotiation speleological |
| cladd | trench, pit, place where anything is hidden or buried Welsh |
| crundle | thicket in a hollow through which a stream leads Hampshire, Sussex |
| doline | depression or basin, often funnel-shaped, in a limestone landscape geological |
| dripstone | calcium carbonate deposited by dripping water, often in elaborate ‘melted-wax’ formations speleological |
| dúlaoisc | sea-level cave Irish |
| ear-dipper | cavers’ slang for a passage that is low and almost full of water speleological |
| flowstone | calcium carbonate deposited by running water, often in elaborate ‘drapery’ formations speleological |
| gaur | terrace-like formation of flowstone that traps miniature lagoons of water within its banks speleological |
| gew | hollow, cleft Cornish |
| gloup , glupe | opening in the roof of a sea cave through which the pressure of incoming waves may force air to rush upwards, or water to jet and spout Hebrides, Orkney, Shetland |
| helictite | coral-like stalactite that grows in a curved and twisted lateral formation, seeming to defy gravity speleological |
| helier | cave into which the tide flows Shetland |
| hell-kettle | deep black gulf or abyss; a name locally applied to holes or pools popularly supposed to be bottomless northern England |
| hwamp | hollow in the ground Shetland |
| jaw-hole | gaping fissure, abyss Yorkshire |
| jook-hole | hare hole in a dyke Galloway |
| katavothron | subterranean channel or deep chasm formed by the action of water geological |
| lunky | gap in a fence or dyke (big enough to let sheep through but not cattle) Galloway |
| pluais | underground hollow; cave; den Irish |
| plunge-basin | deep hollow or cavity excavated at the foot of a waterfall by the action of the falling water geological |
| ruckle | maze of stacked boulders in a cave passage, often dangerously loose speleological |
| scailp | cleft or fissure; sheltering place beneath rock Irish |
| swale, swallet, swallow | hole where a stream enters the earth southern England |
| talamh-toll | opening in the ground, sometimes over an underground burn Gaelic |
| thorough-shutts | hole burrowed by a rabbit through a hedge Suffolk |
| vuggy | of rock: full of cavities Cornwall |
| weem | inhabited cave or underground dwelling place Scots |
| wholve | short arched or covered drain under a path Essex |
| BOAT | Byway Open to All Traffic: in England and Wales a (category of) public right of way open to all types of vehicle on the basis of historical evidence of vehicular use, but used chiefly as a footpath or bridleway official |
| boreen | small, seldom-used road, usually with grass growing up the middle Hiberno-English |
| bostal | pathway up a hill, generally very steep Kent, Sussex |
| cahsy , cahzy | raised road or footway at a place liable to flood Essex |
| cansey , cawnie | causeway, raised path Suffolk |
| carpet-way | smooth grass road or lane Kent |
| ceuffordd | holloway, narrow sunken road Welsh |
| ceum | known path, often out to moorland shielings Gaelic |
| chase | green lane East Anglia |
| ciseach | improvised bridge or path across a stream Irish |
| cooms | high ridges in muddy tracks, which rise between wheel-ruts East Anglia |
| drong | narrow path between hedges south-west England |
| foylings | deer tracks through a thicket Northamptonshire |
| ginnel | long, narrow passage between houses, either roofed or unroofed northern England |
| holloway | lane or path that has been grooved down into the surrounding landscape due to the erosive power of, variously, feet, wheels and rainwater Dorset |
| lagger | broad, green lane Herefordshire |
| lich-way, lych way | corpse-way, way of the dead: path along which bodies are carried to burial Devon |
| lopeway | footpath not adapted to wheeled vehicles East Anglia |
| lyste-way | green way on the edge of a field Kent |
| muxy-rout | deep muddy wheel-rut Exmoor |
| perquage | sanctuary path leading from church to sea by the shortest route Jèrriais (Jersey Norman) |
| popey | stretch of road or lane allowed to become derelict, overgrown and unused Kent |
| prickings | footprints of a rabbit Northamptonshire |
| pukkering kosh | signpost Anglo-Romani |
| rack | path made by hares or rabbits Cotswolds |
| ramper | raised pathway through muddy ground Fenland |
| rudge | deep wheel-rut Northamptonshire |
| sarn | causeway, paved way of long usage Welsh |
| scort | footprints of horses, cattle or deer Cotswolds |
| sheer-way | bridle path or permissive way through private land Kent |
| strodi | lane between two walls Shetland |
| tacks | zigzag way up a cliff or hillside Isle of Man |
| twitchel | narrow path between hedges Midlands |
| twycene | fork in a road, a forked way Old English |
| walks | unenclosed lands and commons Suffolk |
| wattery-lonnin | neglected lane where water is allowed to run undrained Cumbria |
| wence | centre of a crossroads Kent |
| wilsome | of a way or path: leading through wild and desolate regions Scots |
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