Route 57 Beinn Eighe - Ruadh Stac Mor, Spidean Coire nan Clach
Route 58 Slioch
Route 59 A’ Chailleach, Sgurr Breac, Sgurr nan Each, Sgurr nan Clach Geala, Meall a’ Chrasgaidh
Route 60 Beinn Liath Mhor Fannaich, Sgurr Mor, Meall Gorm, An Coileachan
Route 61 Fionn Bheinn
Route 62 Am Faochagach
Route 63 Ben Wyvis - Glas Leathad Mor
Route 64 Ruadh Stac Mor, A’ Mhaighdean, Beinn Tarsuinn, Mullach Coire Mhic Fhearchair, Sgurr Ban
Route 65 Sgurr Fiona, Bidein a’ Ghlas Thuill
Route 66 Eididh nan Clach Geala, Meall nan Ceapraichean, Cona’ Mheall, Beinn Dearg
Route 67 Seana Bhraigh
Route 68 Conival, Ben More Assynt
Route 69 Ben Klibreck - Meal Nan Con
Route 70 Ben Hope
Appendix A Bibliography
Appendix B Contact Details
Appendix C Index of Munros (alphabetical)
Appendix D Index of Munros (by height)
East ridge of Carn Eige
INTRODUCTION
There are 282 Munros - that’s a lot of cheese sandwiches. It’s a lot of blisters, too, and sweat and tired muscles and wet socks. But think of the positive side. Doing the Munros will take you to places of quite extraordinary beauty that you would never other-wise have seen; places that inspire awe, reflection and sometimes fear. The pleasures awaiting the Munroist are many and varied. Navigating your way through the primeval wonderland of Scotland’s mountain landscapes will put the rest of your life into a new perspective. There will be moments of great satisfaction, often in the midst of adver-sity; moments when you have unforgettable encounters with wildlife, and moments when friendships are forged through shared experience.
Climbing the Munros can also give you a richer understanding of the forces that have shaped this great landscape, and an appreciation of the lives of those hardy creatures and plants that depend upon it for their existence. It will perhaps introduce you to some of the great stories of Scottish history that have been played out in the Highlands. If you are lucky it might even give you a greater understanding of your own inner strengths and weaknesses, a discovery of where your own limits lie and a chance to stretch yourself beyond them. There is a lot to be gained from walking the Scottish hills.
So why is there a need for this new guide to the Munros when there are other more lavishly illustrated guides on the market? The answer became clear to me when I saw walkers carrying scribbled route descriptions and crumpled photocopies with them on walks. Big, hardback guidebooks are fine for a coffee table, but they can’t be slipped into your back pocket and taken with you where they’re really needed. This guide, with its waterproof jacket, can be taken on your walk, and gives a full, clear and up-to-date route description.
Let’s be honest about it: doing the Munros is not as hard as it once was. The logistics are much easier now, for a start; within the lifetime of one generation many of the Highland roads have become wider, straighter and faster. Where once you had to wait until morning for a ferryman to arrive and take one or two cars across at a time, now there is a bridge. There are also more people walking the hills; routes are well established and danger points better understood. A good safety net is also provided by mountain rescue teams across the country in the event of things going wrong. Route-finding is also much easier than it used to be, with a network of paths on most of the major hills where thousands of others have gone before. But - and it is a big but - climbing the Munros is still an adventure; one that will grip you and give you a fund of memories to last a lifetime. And when the weather turns bad there is just the same need as ever there was for sound judgement, fortitude and navigational skill to bring you safely home.
The qualities required of the Munroist are not technically or even physically as demanding as those, say, of the rock climber or the high-altitude mountaineer (unless the routes are being done in winter conditions, in which case they can become a serious and arduous mountaineering undertaking). But a certain doggedness is nevertheless needed - the perseverance to see through a huge task - plus the skill and courage to navigate in conditions that can change all too rapidly in the Scottish hills. And this is not to mention a willingness to get wet, cold, shrouded in mist and buffeted by storms. If you only venture out when the sun is shining on the tops it may take more than one lifetime to complete the round.
Some people may deride those who are working through the Munros, as if the act of ticking them off a list somehow corrupts an otherwise pure experience of mountaineering. In my experience the opposite is true. By accepting the challenge of doing them all you open yourself up to a host of new experiences, and you find yourself in a variety of mountain situations that you might never have otherwise experienced. Besides this, of the many accomplished