Places to go

Britain’s weirdest local nicknames

By Jonathan Elder

Published on May 10, 2024

1 min read

Ordnance Survey has recently rolled out the ‘Vernacular Mapping Tool‘, which is a collection of non-official nicknames for locations around the coast. The serious goal is to make it easier for emergency services to locate a place when a caller identifies it with a local name that does not appear on the map.

It also provides a treasure-trove of the weird, wonderful and occasionally rude, so we thought we’d pick out a few of our favourite of the weirdest local nicknames.

The Ropey (Arbroath Harbour)

Pig’s Paradise (Scarba island, Scotland)

The Twelve Apostles (Catacol village. The name comes from a distinctive row of houses)

Wibbly Wobbley Bridge (Millennium Bridge, London. When it first opened it wobbled a lot. It was closed for two years to add damping)

Soapy Cove (Probably from a former soap stone quarry, so no good for laundry)

Stinky Bay (Pentire, Cornwall)

Bridge to Nowhere (East Lothian)

The bridge to nowhere at high tide (Image © Richard Sutcliffe)

Sausage Island (an island near Ynys–Las, Wales)

Yellow Dog with No Teeth Bridge (Hampshire)

Glitter Ball (Blackpool)

The Comedy Carpet (Blackpool)

Bloody Bay (Northumberland)

Crazy Mary’s Hole (Suffolk. It’s apparently haunted by the ghost of Crazy Mary)

The Dalek (Bridgewater Place skyscraper, Leeds)

Sober Island (Outer Hebrides)

The Eye of the Butt (Outer Hebrides)

“Eye of the Butt” Cave, Shiant Isles © Tony Kinghorn

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By Jonathan Elder

Jonathan helps run the OS Shop and GetOutside, and in his free time can be found walking, playing computer games or, in the winter, falling off mountains with a plank of wood strapped to his feet.