Aglen is a valley, typically one that is long and bounded by gently sloped concave sides, unlike a ravine, which is deep and bounded by steep slopes. The word is Goidelic in origin: gleanninIrish and Scottish Gaelic, glioninManx. The designation "glen" also occurs often in place names. Glens are appreciated by tourists for their tranquility and scenery.
The word is Goidelic in origin: gleanninIrish and Scottish Gaelic, glioninManx. In Manx, glan is also to be found meaning glen. It is cognate with Welshglyn.[citation needed] Whittow defines it as a "Scottish term for a deep valley in the Highlands" that is "narrower than a strath".[1]
As the name of a river, it is thought to derive from the Irish word glan meaning clean, or the Welsh word gleindid meaning purity. An example is the Glens of AntriminNorthern Ireland where nine glens radiate out from the Antrim plateau to the sea along the coast between Ballycastle and Larne.[citation needed]
In the Finger Lakes region of New York State, the southern ends of Seneca Lake and Cayuga Lake in particular are etched with glens, although in this region the term "glen" refers most frequently to a narrow gorge, as opposed to a wider valley or strath. The steep hills surrounding these lakes are filled with loose shale from glacial moraines. This material has eroded over the past 10,000 years to produce rocky glens (e.g., Watkins Glen, Fillmore Glen State Park and Treman State Parks) and waterfalls (e.g., Taughannock Falls) as rainwater has flowed down toward the lakes below.[citation needed]
Many place-names in Scotland with "glen" derive from the Gaelic gleann ("deep valley"), with some being from the cognates in the Brittonic languages Cumbric and Pictish or from the Gaelic loanword gleninScots.
Glenridding, Westmorland - equivalent to Old Welsh glinnredin ("bracken valley").[5]
Glyn Morlas, Shropshire
Glynn Kenyel, Cornwall - from Cornish glynn ("deep valley") + ken ("meeting, confluence") + yel (adjectival suffix).[6]
Note that some place-names in England with "Glen", such as Glen Parva in Leicestershire, are actually more likely to derive from river-names named with Brittonic glan ("shining").[5]
