The Maiden Paps are twin hills near
Hawick
Hawick ( ; ; ) is a town in the Scottish Borders council areas of Scotland, council area and counties of Scotland, historic county of Roxburghshire in the east Southern Uplands of Scotland. It is south-west of Jedburgh and south-south-east o ...
, in the
Scottish Borders
The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...
of the south east of
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
, so named because they
have the shape of human
breast
The breasts are two prominences located on the upper ventral region of the torso among humans and other primates. Both sexes develop breasts from the same embryology, embryological tissues. The relative size and development of the breasts is ...
s. They are located south of Hawick; the higher pap is and the lower high.
Maiden Paps
at themountainguide.co.uk; retrieved 25 October 2023
Although there are some well-defined hills like the Maiden Paps, the Roxburgh Hills are gently rolling
Rolling is a Motion (physics)#Types of motion, type of motion that combines rotation (commonly, of an Axial symmetry, axially symmetric object) and Translation (geometry), translation of that object with respect to a surface (either one or the ot ...
for the most part, like much of the Southern Uplands
The Southern Uplands () are the southernmost and least populous of mainland Scotland's three major geographic areas (the others being the Central Lowlands and the Highlands). The term is used both to describe the geographical region and to col ...
. Due to the surrounding landscape
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or human-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...
, hills such as the Maiden Paps tend to look more prominent than they actually are.
The Maiden Paps are relatively close to Shankend ( to the NE) and to the Hermitage Castle
Hermitage Castle is a semi-ruined castle in the border region of Scotland. It stands in the remote valley of the Hermitage Water, part of Liddesdale in Roxburghshire. It is under the care of Historic Scotland. The castle has a reputation, both ...
( to the south); these are two places with a sinister reputation.
See also
* Paps of Anu
The Paps of Anu (, "the breasts of Anu") are a pair of breast-shaped mountains near Killarney in County Kerry, Ireland. The eastern summit, The Paps East, is high and the western top, The Paps West is high.
The mountains are named after Anu ...
* Pap of Glencoe
The Pap of Glencoe () is a mountain on the northern side of Glen Coe, in the Highlands of Scotland. It lies at the western end of the Aonach Eagach ridge, directly above the point where the River Coe enters Loch Leven.
The Pap is so named as i ...
* Paps of Jura
The Paps of Jura () are three mountains on the western side of the island of Jura, Scotland, Jura, in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Their highest point is .
They are steep-sided quartzite hills with distinctive conical shapes Breast-shaped h ...
* Breast-shaped hill
Some breast-shaped hills are named "wikt:pap#Etymology 2, pap", an archaic word for the breast or nipple of a woman, particularly those with a small hilltop protuberance. Such anthropomorphic geographic features are found in different parts of t ...
References
External links
Scottish Borders Walking Festival
{{coord, 55, 18, 46.31, N, 2, 47, 18.68, W, region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(NN125594), display=title
Mountains and hills of the Scottish Borders