Marilyn poll results

Poll Tryfia

Tryfan received twice as many votes as any other hill yet failed to win the overall award, perhaps because many people found it difficult to look beyond Scotland for the best British hill. The Torridon Munros barely featured, perhaps because it was too difficult to choose between their two Marilyns. No votes for the In Pinn or Sgorr nam Fiannaidh at the end of Aonach Eagach.

Tryfan (photo: Bert Barnett)

Seventeen hills were nominated in best and worst categories: A'Mhaighdean, An Sgurr (Eigg), Beinn Sgritheall, Ben Nevis, Carn Fiaclach, Carnedd Llewelyn, Coniston Old Man, Great Orme, Kinder Scout, Ladhar Bheinn, Plynlimon, Scafell Pike, Sighty Crag, Snowdon, Tryfan, Upper Park, Wendover Woods. Snowdon was the only hill to receive at least three best and three worst votes, suggesting dislike of crowds and clutter rather than the hill itself, while Scafell Pike managed two of each.

Grahams featured prominently in the best 600-900m category even though they were up against Corbetts, taking 18 of the 48 votes, while 12 different Corbetts picked up negative votes, compared to 16 different Grahams. There was some tactical voting, with a few people voting for one hill as their overall favourite and a different one in the relevant category, as a way of nominating an extra hill.

The Cairngorms were almost entirely absent from best and worst categories, with only Braeriach scoring a best vote and only Geal Charn scoring a negative (along with Carn Ealasaid from region 8). Region 2 was also largely overlooked, with only Ben Lawers scoring a plus point to set against negative votes for Beinn Mhanach, Farragon Hill, Meall Glas, Meall nam Maigheach and Schiehallion. Region 30 scored the most positive votes (70) and also the most negative votes (29), reflecting the large number of distinctive hills there.

Several people chose not to cast any negative votes, suggesting that all hills had some merits, while others struggled to choose between numerous candidates. Those who did vote were split into two camps: those who considered dulls hills worse than painful ones, and vice versa. Perhaps the biggest surprise was that Lewis only picked up three votes in the 'worst' category, and Jura none at all. Perhaps the views compensate for the terrain. Or maybe more people have been to south Arran than to north Lewis or north Jura. The negative vote for Stac Lee was not strictly allowed, as the voter had not been up it. However, it was permitted as a gesture of sympathy with the sentiment.

Regions 13, 26 and 29 escaped any negative votes. Apart from those three, region 16 had the best ratio, with 35 bests and only 3 worsts, followed by region 34 (66/7) region 17 (47/8) then regions 14, 24, 18, 3, 38 and 10. Least popular regions were 5, 7, 23, 29, 37 and 40, which received no positive votes at all. After that, the worst ratio was for region 41 (1 best, 18 worst), region 42 (1 best, 11 worst) and regions 9, 15 and 33 (each with 1 best and 8 worsts). Some other regions with several unpopular hills (19, 27, 32, 35) did ok overall, with enough good hills to compensate for the dross.