Hills - Munros

The Munros is a collective name given to all the distinct mountains in Scotland which are over 3,000 feet.

The classification was given its name by Sir Hugh Munro of Lindertis, Angus, Scotland who, in 1891, published a table (Munro’s Table) of all the hills which he considered to be over 3,000 feet in height. His original classification denoted that there were 283 hills which met the criteria, but more modern cartographical techniques have caused that figure to be revised to 284, then back to 283 again (10th September 2009). The Table was last officially revised in July 1997, and previously in 1984 (apart from a minor tweak in 1990), giving us the figure in use today.

The main cause for the change in the number of Munros is the many advances in cartographical techniques. It is now possible to measure the height of a hill to a far greater degree of accuracy than ever before.

A second reason for the change is that, for several years, many people have felt that certain hills should deservedly be given two or three distinct Munros. As Sir Hugh didn’t specify any criteria other than height for classifying hills, it has been left up to the Scottish Mountaineering Club to determine what is, and isn’t, a distinct hill. For example, Beinn Alligin contains two main summits, but prior to the current revision only one was classed as a Munro.

Climbing 283 mountains is no mean feat. Whilst some of the mountains (e.g. Carn Aosda) can be climbed in about 30 minutes, due to their proximity to a road, others (e.g. Luinne Bheinn) are so isolated that a considerable walk-in is required, followed by the inevitable considerable-walk-out! These hills can easily take two days to climb.

The first Munro-bagger was a priest, the Reverend A E Robertson. His ‘compleation’ was finalised in September 1901, on the summit of Meall Dearg in Glencoe. Robertson was one of the founder members of the Scottish Mountaineering Club, which continues to this day. It is acknowledged that Robertson did not truly ‘do the round’ as he failed to climb the Inaccessible Pinnacle on Skye, which at that time was not regarded as a Munro, but Sgurr Dearg was! However, considering the date and the equipment available at that time, nobody is ever going to begrudge him his well-earned title. He is Munroist number 1.

The Scottish Mountaineering Club maintains a list of all those people who have ‘compleated’ the round. This list currently (March 1999) stands at over 1,900 names, many of whom have done the round several times. One die-hard person has compleated ten times, totalling over 2,800 Munros in the process!

One legendary ascent was undertaken by Hamish Brown. He made the entire ascent of all 279 hills (as the list was then) in a single non-stop trip, taking 12 weeks to complete the walk. He later wrote a book detailing the trip. A similar trip was undertaken by Martin Moran, who chose to climb the hills in Winter (and who also wrote a book on the subject). However, Martin used motorised transport between the hills.

To see the current classification of the Munros, please click the links below. Any hill which has a date beside it shows that I have ascended that hill - to view the ascent details, just click the date.

Munros Table Munros by Region Ascent Progress Munros Proximity