Scotland's Munros & Corbetts

‘Munros’

Scotland’s Munros are quite possibly the most famous list of mountains in the UK, competing with the Wainwrights in the Lake district. So what are they? It is a list of Scottish Mountains over 3000ft with ‘sufficient separation’ from neighbouring mountains. The list is named after its creator, Sir Hugh Munro (who was one of the original Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) members), and was first published in SMC journal of 1891.

The ‘Bagging’ of Munros was popularised much later however, after Hamish Brown spent 4 months on a self propelled round (except the ferries) of all of the Munros, with his wife in tow in a camper van. He published a book about the trip in 1974 - ‘Hamish’s Mountain Walk’.

There are currently 282 Munros each with their own challenges be it navigationally, technical difficulty or just pure walking distance. The original list has been adjusted as measuring techniques have improved and some mountains are found to be just under the magic 3000ft height.

‘Corbetts’

John Rooke Corbett was the 4th person to complete a round of the Munros and the first Englishman to do so. He went on to climb all of Scotland’s hills over 2000ft and drew up a list of all those hills above 2500ft with prominence (a drop on all sides) of 500ft. He never passed this list onto the SMC but his sister found it when he passed away. The ‘Corbetts’ list was then added alongside the SMC’s Munros. As with the Munros, as height measurements have become more accurate some hills have been added or removed from the list and there are presently 222 hills on it.

The Corbetts get to some far-reaching places in Scotland that the Munros do not, such as some of Scotland’s stunning Islands. These include: Arran, Rum, Jura and Harris. As well as this, the far northwest has far more Corbetts than it does Munros, making for a great way of exploring those hills.

What else is there?

There are plenty of other lists of hills and Mountains to give you some inspiration:  

• Grahams – 2000ft to 2499ft with 150m Prominence on all sides. Of the ones AP Mountaineering have covered, they tend to be very wild and untraveled so paths are often non-existent and in poor visibility good navigation is key.

• Murdos – Not an officially recognized SMC list but it is all Scottish peaks of 3000ft + with prominence of 30m.

• Marilyns – any hill with prominence of 150m across the UK.

• Donalds – Percy Donald’s list of hills over 2000ft in the Scottish lowlands – (Galloway, Borders, Ochills etc).

• And not forgetting the famous Wainwrights in the Lake District (mentioned above). Alfred Wainwright’s books ‘Pictorial Guide to the lakeland fells’ gave us this list of 214 Fells in the Lake District.

Explore the mountains

Where does AP Mountaineering come into this? Well, the mountains in all these lists make for a massive variety of places to visit. The nature of these mountains vary in rock types, altitudes and locations in the UK and so offer up a range of experiences and unique challenges. AP Mountaineering is based in Edinburgh, and so is well positioned to help create bespoke days, or multi-day trips, to take you to places all over Scotland.

For more information about or our bespoke days, please click here.  If you want to try us first, we also offer guided walks in various areas, such as The Cairngorms, Arrochar Alps and Glencoe.

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