Beinn Bhreac from the Derry Dun (Route 2)
On the descent of Sgurr na Sgine (Route 28)
The Munros
What exactly are the Munros? I don’t propose here to retell the history of this select group of hills. Suffice to say that Sir Hugh Munro’s great idea of climbing all the 3000ft mountains in Scotland has for over a century captured the imagination of everyone who loves mountains. In the popular imagination the Round of Munros includes all the hills that are over 3000ft in height. Once you start climbing them, however, you quickly realize that this is not the whole story. There are many points where the land rises above 3000ft but is not regarded as a separate hill; or where it clearly is a separate hill, but it has still not been accorded the status of a Munro.
Sir Hugh’s original list, drawn up in 1891, was rather different from the most recently updated version. Some revisions have taken place as a result of improvements in mapping. Sir Hugh, for example, rather conveniently believed that the Inaccessible Pinnacle was lower than Sgurr Dearg and so it was not originally listed as a Munro. Even today the latest satellite mapping techniques may reveal that the accepted heights of hills is wrong (usually only by the odd metre). The Munro summit of Ben a’ Chroin had to be redefined a couple of years ago because what was previously thought to be a lower Top nearly 1km away was found to be 1m higher than the classified summit. Similarly the respective heights of Beinn a’ Chaorainn’s three summits have recently been revised, and Ben Nevis itself is now officially 1m lower than it was a few years ago.
Successive revisions of the list by the Great and the Good have sought to declassify some hills and upgrade others, not just because their respective heights have been reassessed but also on the basis of their ‘character’ or ‘remoteness’, or whether it was felt that readers ought to be directed to one rather than another. There is not always an obvious logic to the hills that are in or out of the list at any moment in time, and the list has been revised so often that it is in some danger of being discredited. There have been two recent revisions in which Sgurr nan Ceannaichean and Beinn a’ Chlaidheimh were downgraded and these are now no longer deemed to be Munros. On the current list there are 282 Munros and 227 Tops.
Creag a’ Mhaim (centre right) across Loch Loyne (Route 29)
Despite all the argument and lack of clarity about what makes a hill a Munro, and despite the all-too-frequent revisions, there is no doubting the fact that the underlying idea of the list makes sense to most people; it always has made sense and it probably always will. The list stands for something meaningful both to the hillwalker and to the public at large, and that something involves the idea that the Munros are all the highest hills in Scotland.
Using the Guide
This guide is published in two volumes: volume one covering the southern Munros and volume two the northern peaks. In general the routes in volume two are listed from south to north. First listed are routes in the northern Cairngorms, then those on the northern side of Glen Spean/Glen Spey, and finally from Glen Finnan working northwards all the way up to Ben Hope. The ‘area maps’ at the front of the book place the Munros in their local context, and the overview map of Scotland locates them within the country as a whole.
Some of the Northern Munros, such as those in Fisherfield and Letterewe, are particularly remote; some, most notably those on the Cuillin of Skye, involve scrambling on rock. Such demands may be new to the average hillwalker, and it is incumbent on them to make sure that they have the necessary judgement and skills to cope safely with these challenges (two useful mountain skills books are recommended in ‘Difficulty’, below).
The guide contains a special introduction to the Munros in the Cairngorms and to those on the Isle of Skye; this is to highlight the particular dangers that arise for hillwalkers in these areas. The introductions, which immediately precede the Cairngorm routes and Skye routes, should be read before attempting any walks in those areas.
Sgurr an Lochain from Sgurr an Doire Leathain (Route 29)
Sgurr na Lapaich from Glen Strathfarrar (Route 39)
The routes described are often the most popular ones for each hill; usually these are also the most direct and obvious ways up. Like most walkers I have a preference for circuits rather than returning by the route of ascent, and these have been given where appropriate. Some alternatives to the described route are indicated. There may be ‘better’ ways up some of the hills, but the distances involved in reaching them can be a strong disincentive to their use.
Some Munros are isolated and have to be climbed on their own, but most Munros fall naturally into distinct pairs or small groups. Sometimes, however, this natural grouping of hills can make for a very long route if done in one outing. Usually these longer routes, such as the Lochnagar circuit or the Ben Lui hills, can be broken down into shorter walks if required, and whilst several long routes are described here in full, suggestions are made (where appropriate) about how to tackle them in a number of shorter outings if preferred.
Each route is prefaced by a box containing information to help you in planning your ascents.
Mountain Names and Pronunciations
All the mountain names have been taken in the form that they appear on the current 1:50,000 OS maps, although it is clear that there could be alternative spellings for many of them. Spellings on the maps sometimes appear in their Gaelic form, for example ‘bheinn’ and ‘mhor’, and sometimes in anglicized versions of Gaelic words, such as ‘ben’ and ‘more’. For the sake of consistency I have kept faithful to the OS spellings, even where these appear to be wrong.
Suggested meanings and pronunciations have been given at the start of each route for the names of all the peaks, drawing on a variety of sources. The origin of mountain names is often complex and sometimes obscure. Whilst the majority of Scottish mountain names are of Gaelic origin, some owe more to Norse, Pictish, Scots or English influence. Some names may contain elements of more than one language - Bla Bheinn on Skye, for example, is often held to derive from ‘bla’, a Norse word meaning ‘blue’, and ‘bheinn’, the Gaelic word for mountain, although there are others who feel that Bla comes from the Gaelic ‘blath’, meaning ‘flowers’. Many Munro names have more than one possible derivation.
Pronunciations, too, are far from fixed and certain, and it would be wrong to be too dogmatic about them. I have tried to give a simple phonetic rendition of each pronunciation so that a modern English speaker can readily understand it. But this is not a simple task: many of the names may have Gaelic roots, but over time they have been corrupted into words that are no longer recognisably Gaelic. Ben Chonzie, for example, may have its origin in the Gaelic word ‘cineach’, meaning moss, but there is no letter z in the Gaelic alphabet, and the name as it appears on maps today is no more recognisable to a Gaelic speaker than it is to an English speaker.
Putting these names into phonetic spellings presents other difficulties too. Gaelic has a number of sounds which have no equivalent in English, for example the Gaelic sound ‘ch’ (as in the word ‘loch’) is always a soft sound produced in the back of the throat, not the harder English sound of ‘lock’ or the ‘ch’ sound produced in the front of the mouth (as in ‘chalk’). Moreover Gaelic has distinct regional differences in pronunciation, and in some areas where Gaelic is no longer spoken the local pronunciations of mountain names may not accord with received wisdom about the ‘correct’ pronunciation.