Dunmallet or Dunmallard Hill is a small hill in the English

Lake District The Lake District, also known as the Lakes or Lakeland, is a mountainous region in North West England. A popular holiday destination, it is famous for its lakes, forests, and mountains (or ''fells''), and its associations with William Wordswor ...

, near Pooley Bridge,

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumb ...

. It is the subject of a chapter of Wainwright's book '' The Outlying Fells of Lakeland''. It reaches and Wainwright describes the ascent, from Pooley Bridge, as a "simple after-dinner stroll". He lists two other early spellings: Dunmalloght and Dunmallock The hill is wooded and the views from the top limited. Remains of an

Iron Age The Iron Age is the final epoch of the three-age division of the prehistory and protohistory of humanity. It was preceded by the Stone Age (Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic) and the Bronze Age (Chalcolithic). The concept has been mostly appl ...

hill fort A hillfort is a type of earthwork used as a fortified refuge or defended settlement, located to exploit a rise in elevation for defensive advantage. They are typically European and of the Bronze Age or Iron Age. Some were used in the post-Roma ...

have been detected on the hill.

Etymology

The name ''Dunmallet'' or ''Dunmallard'' may either be of Brittonic or

Middle Irish Middle Irish, sometimes called Middle Gaelic ( ga, An Mheán-Ghaeilge, gd, Meadhan-Ghàidhlig), is the Goidelic language which was spoken in Ireland, most of Scotland and the Isle of Man from AD; it is therefore a contemporary of late Old Engli ...

origin. The most likely derivation is from Irish ''dùn-mallacht'', meaning "fort of curses". Or else, the name may conserve a Brittonic formation of the elements ''dīn-'' ("fort") + ''mę:l'' ("bald") + ''-arδ'' ("height").

References

Fells of the Lake District Dacre, Cumbria {{Cumbria-geo-stub