Malham

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A small village in the Yorkshire Dales of northern England, known for the nearby limestone cliff called Malham Cove
2. A rural settlement in North Yorkshire, England, famous for a dramatic curved limestone cliff and its surrounding scenery
3. The name of a village in the Craven district of Yorkshire, England, situated beside a towering, horseshoe-shaped limestone escarpment

Etymology: Malham is a village in the Yorkshire Dales, and its name is older than almost anything else you will find in the local landscape. It first appears in the Domesday Book of 1086 as "Malgun", a spelling that already hints at the Norse speakers who gave the place its name. The name most likely comes from Old Norse "malg" or "maligr", meaning "gravelly soil" or "sandbank". That description suits the setting well: the village sits beside a stream that has cut through limestone, leaving loose, stony ground along its banks. Viking-age settlers in northern England often named farms and hamlets after such physical features, so the name records how the first inhabitants saw the land around them.