The Land Reader Project

Hum, corrie, spinney, karst and tor – a selection of just some of the unusual and rarely used words that describe the vast array of shapes and features that we find in the great outdoors. The Land Reader project is an ongoing effort to collect, organise and share all of these lesser used words in an attempt to enable us to connect with the natural world through language.

I myself have often found that my vocabulary of the hills and mountains is somewhat limited, so thelandreader.com provides a great resource to learn new words like Fèith: [Rent in peat made by water, usually dry in summer.] and Clough: [A narrow ravine or steep-sided valley with a stream at the bottom.].

The website also allows for submission, so if you know of a forgotten word you too can share it with everyone and have it added to the glossary.

This website is something I’m glad to see exists, as not only does it provide the outdoor enthusiast with new words to impress friends, it is also a way of preserving the history of our landscape by holding onto the old words of Gaelic and Anglo-Saxon. Dominick Tyler who runs the website deserves a congratulations and a thank you, as he has made a brilliant resource available to us all.