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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 otherwise 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 adversity; 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.

Rainbow on the Aonachs from Sgurr Choinnich Beag (Route 2)

Ben Alder from the northeast ridge (Route 14)

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 and aspiring Munroists I know, I can think of none who confine their hillwalking just to the peaks that are on the list. I know of none who have not felt enriched by trying to complete the round.

Stob Coire nam Beith from Glen Coe (Route 32)

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. The last revision came in 2012 when Beinn a' Chlaidheimh was remeasured and deemed to fall just below the required height. On the current list there are 282 Munros and 227 Tops.

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 one are listed from west to east and from north to south. Ben Nevis and Carn Mor Dearg, in the far northwest of the area covered by this volume, therefore make up Route 1, followed by the Munros that extend eastwards along the Spean Valley. The Arrochar Alps and Ben Lomond, being the most southerly Munros, are listed last.

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.

Near the top of the Lancet Edge on Sgor lutharn (Geal Charn) (Route 15)

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 ‘còineach’, 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.

Aonach Dubh from the lip of the upper corrie of Coire nan Lochan (Route 32)

Many people regard it as a form of vandalism to change old names in any way, and whilst I have a lot of sympathy with this view I am also aware that language can never be frozen in time. The historical evidence shows clearly that, like all other place names, the names of Munros have changed and evolved over time. There is nothing inherently wrong with modern usage bringing new changes to these words. There is no one period in history to which the ‘correct’ pronunciation should be attributed.

Maps

The route mapping in this edition is at a scale of 1:100,000. The maps are based on open-source material derived from publicly available data, databases and crowd-sourced data and are designed to offer quick help with routefinding. They don’t however remove the need to use the relevant OS map of 1:50,000 scale or greater when doing the walks.

The box at the start of each route makes reference to the 1:50,000 OS maps. With the notable exception of one or two areas, such as the Black Cuillin on Skye, this is the scale of map that I personally prefer for climbing the Munros, and it is widely recognized as being a suitable scale for the hillwalker.

The relevant OS Explorer maps, which some prefer, are also listed. These 1:25,000 maps give much more detail. This can be advantageous, but it can also complicate the process of route-finding – particularly on steep ground where a lot of contours are packed very close together, or in areas where there is a lot of exposed rock. Additionally, sometimes more than one map is needed to cover the walk in question.

The ‘area maps’ referred to in the box at the start of each route correspond to those at the start of the book; these are designed to give a broad view of where each Munro lies in relation to major roads and also to neighbouring Munros. The overview map of Scotland provided just before these area maps shows the location of each area within Scotland as a whole.

The 1:100,000 maps accompanying each route description in this guide are designed to assist in planning your route and are not intended to be a replacement for the appropriate OS map for the purposes of navigation: it is strongly recommended that the appropriate OS map is carried at all times. Harvey also make an excellent series of maps for some of the areas described, particularly for Skye.

Glas Bheinn Mhor from Stob Coire Dheirg (Route 38)

If you are using different maps, or an older edition of the OS maps, you should bear in mind that spot heights and names may vary from those in the text.

There is also some confusing variation in Munro heights between the OS maps, the SMC official list and the Munro Society list.

Grid References

As an aid to navigation, grid references have been given for summits and for other key features and descent points on all the routes. These are all 10-figure readings taken on the walk itself with a GPS. Whilst technology can fail or be unreliable at times, GPS readings are nearly always close enough for hillwalking purposes. (In a number of recent mountain rescue exercises small canes were planted in rough ground in a mountain area of several square miles and were found without much difficulty from their grid reference using a GPS, even in poor visibility.) The latest generation of GPSs is generally very accurate and reliable. Many walkers now carry a GPS and it can be a useful navigational tool, especially if you need to establish your exact position in poor visibility. This does not obviate the need for a map and compass, however, and great care needs to be taken if you are navigating from one waypoint to another in poor visibility, as a straight line between the two may well take you over a cliff.

Brocken spectre on the ridge between Creise and Meall a’ Bhuiridh (Route 40)

Distance and Ascent

The distances given in the information box at the start of each walk are always from the car park and back to the car park unless otherwise stated. The ascent for each route includes the cumulative height gained over undulating ground.

Difficulty

Climbing any Munro involves a degree of difficulty. A fair level of fitness, an ability to navigate using a map and compass in poor visibility and an understanding of the mountain environment are all necessary qualities for anyone attempting to climb a Munro, and it is assumed that anyone using this guide will have these minimum skills.

In certain walks, additional skills are required for activities such as scrambling on rock, dealing with exposure or crossing rivers. Notes on ‘difficulty’ appear in the preface to such walks. However, the absence of any mention of specific problems does not imply that a walk is necessarily ‘easy’ or to be taken lightly. The usual grading system for scrambling has been used, that is from grade 1 for relatively simple scrambles to grade 3 for relatively hard ones.

There are certain ranges of Scottish mountains that pose special difficulties or dangers for the walker or climber and I have written special introductions for the Munros on the Isle of Skye, and for those in the Cairngorms, to highlight these dangers. These area observations (which both occur in Volume 2) precede the relevant routes and should be read before attempting any of the walks in these areas.

The following books may be useful for developing mountain skills:

 Terry Adby and Stuart Johnston, The Hillwalker’s Guide to Mountaineering (Cicerone Press, 2007)

 Eric Langmuir, Mountaincraft and Leadership (Scottish Sports Council – SportScotland, 1995)

The rocks of Stob Coire Dhoire looking towards Ghlas Bheinn Mhor (Route 38)

Times

Approximate route times are given in the information box for each route. These have been worked out using an adapted version of Naismith’s rule, combined with common sense and my own experience of the character of the route. Some walkers will consistently achieve faster times; others will be slower. It really doesn’t matter which, except on very long routes where you may run the risk of benightment if you take too long. Above all, every effort has been made to be consistent so that each walker can get used to the values given in relation to their own speed. Bear in mind that the times given do not include elements for stoppages, lunch breaks, etc, which should be added on.

Parking and Starting the Walk

Details are given in the walk information box about the best places to park for each walk and how to access the hill from these points. It should be borne in mind, however, that approved places for parking are more liable to change than other aspects of a route, and you should be prepared for possible local changes. In a similar vein getting from the road onto the hill frequently takes walkers through a fringe of forest or through farms or other habitation where the preferred line of access may change from time to time. Please ensure that you follow local signs.

Accommodation and Campsites

The nearest youth hostel is given in the information box and, where appropriate, the nearest Independent Hostel. It should be noted, however, that there are some routes, for example in Glen Clova and Glen Esk, where the nearest hostel is a very considerable distance away. For most routes the box also gives the nearest centre where hotels or bed and breakfast accommodation can be found. Occasionally a specific hotel is named if it is the only accommodation in the immediate vicinity of the route.

An indication of where the nearest campsites are has also been given for each route. Unfortunately campsites seem to come and go with some rapidity. ‘Wild camping’ is generally accepted in remote areas well away from the road, so long as the usual rules about rubbish and waste disposal are observed; but the practice of roadside camping – which is currently widespread – is strongly frowned on by landowners, local councils, the police and others.

Access

The Land Reform Act (Scotland), which was passed by the Scottish parliament in 2003, greatly clarifies the issue of access to Scottish mountains, most of which are privately owned. Whilst it bestows a general right of access to the walker, it does not change the need for considerate behaviour in terms of closing gates, protecting stone dykes, taking home litter and respecting both the livestock and wildlife that live in the hills. Nor does it change the need to avoid conflict with other users. In fact, these responsibilities have been built into the bill in the form of a Code of Access, along with the requirement that walkers shoulder responsibility for their own safety. Details can currently be viewed on www.snh.org.uk.

Beinn a’ Chreachain (in cloud) from Beinn Achaladair (Route 42)

There are critical times in the life of upland estates when particular care should be taken. These include the lambing season from March to early summer, and the stalking season – which for stags is from July to October (the latter part of this period is the most critical time for many estates) and for hinds is from late October to mid-February. The shooting season for grouse runs from 12th August to mid-December.

Certain estates in the recent past have not welcomed walkers at all, particularly during the stalking season, and there have been one or two well-publicized battles over access. Fortunately the vast majority of estates now have an enlightened view about public access and many subscribe to the hillphones scheme (see box) or put up notices and maps at the start of walks to assist walkers. Some estates have even constructed car parks specifically for the use of hillwalkers. Dogs can be a serious nuisance. The Access Code gives clear guidelines on keeping dogs under proper control.

Whilst some estates like walkers to ring the factor’s office or head stalker to discuss their routes before venturing onto the hill during the stag-stalking season, most are happy for walkers to come even at this time of year, providing they don’t interfere with stalking. Generally speaking, walkers would be advised to keep to ridges and high ground rather than to move through corries when stalking is taking place. There is less likely to be a conflict at weekends than midweek. On Sundays no shooting at all takes place. If in any doubt try ringing the relevant contact number for advice, but bear in mind that estate offices are not always manned throughout the day.

Beinn Mhanach (centre) (Route 43)

Co-operation isn’t always straightforward: stalkers – the gillies – often don’t know in which area they will be working until the morning of the day in question, and contacting them at that time may not be possible. There should rarely be access problems for most of the routes described provided you act responsibly and try to avoid conflict with other countryside users. Every effort has been made in this guide to give up-to-date contacts for every walk (see ‘Access’ in the box at the start of each walk), but it should be remembered that, just like other sorts of property, estates do sometimes change hands. For smaller estates where the contact may be a stalker’s home number, both the person and the phone number can change fairly often.

A number of routes are accessed by crossing railway lines, and at the time of writing Network Rail are proposing to close some 600 unattended railway crossings to the public on the grounds of safety. There have occasionally been accidents involving walkers crossing railway lines, and walkers should make sure that they cross only at designated places or have the necessary permission to cross from Network Rail. Future Munroists should be aware that new legislation in this area might necessitate changes to the start of some walks.

HILLPHONES SCHEME

This scheme provides hillwalkers in a number of areas in upland Scotland with daily information about deer-stalking activities. Recorded messages indicate where stalking is taking place and which walking routes will be unlikely to affect stalking, and give a forecast of stalking activity over the next few days. The messages are generally updated by 8am each day and are charged at normal call rates. Walks in areas covered by the scheme have the hillphones number in the ‘Access’ section of the box at the start of each route.

For further information contact www.hillphones.info.

Paths

The passage of many feet has left paths on most of the popular routes, and in some places on the lower slopes these paths are robustly constructed. Many walkers may prefer not to travel on such paths, but it should be remembered that constructed paths are there to prevent unnecessary erosion in a fragile landscape. They also limit the disturbance to nesting birds and other wildlife. In some of the walks in this guide you are strongly urged to keep to the described route; this may be because of the particular vulnerability of certain landscapes or to avoid conflict with other land users such as stalkers and shooters at particular times of the year. Path repair and management projects are not there to make the walking easier but to protect the quality of the mountain landscape and its ecology. On the other side of the coin, the Munroist should never assume that there will be a path – particularly on the higher slopes – or that, if there is, it can easily be followed. Anyone who has such an expectation will be quickly disillusioned.

Beinn Narnain from Beinn Ime (Route 68)

Throughout the guide a distinction is drawn between roads, tracks and paths. ‘Road’ is used to indicate a tarmacked public road. ‘Track’ is used to denote a forestry road or a private estate road or landrover track where the public does not have a right of vehicular access and where the road surface is usually rough (sometimes very rough), but where a bike could perhaps be used. ‘Path’ is used to denote a constructed footpath, or one that has formed over time by the passage of many feet. Bikes should not be taken on these. Some paths are startlingly obvious features cutting brashly across the countryside; others may be almost non-existent.

Bikes

The use of mountain bikes by hillwalkers on estate roads has become very widespread in the Highlands. There are hills which lie so far from any public road that the use of a bike to approach the hill along a forestry track or estate road can save many hours of walking. Opinion is split on whether or not this is a good thing. Some people prefer the long walk in. The National Trust has been trying to encourage a pedestrian approach: in some cases – for example in the Mar Lodge Estate in the Cairngorms – by digging up some of the estate roads and turning them back into footpaths.

My own view is that the wilderness character of remote areas needs to be strenuously protected from vehicular access and other sorts of development. There seems to be little restraint even today on the creation of new private roads in Scotland’s fragile wilderness areas; but as long as there is a road leading to the hill, used by estate workers and their clients in their heavy four-by-fours, I can see no valid reason why a bike should not be used on it too. Whatever one’s position on this, there is widespread agreement that mountain bikes should not be taken beyond these tracks onto footpaths.

Leaving Word

Walkers should always leave word with someone about their intended route and expected time of return. Youth hostels throughout the Highlands have specially printed route cards. These can be filled in and left with the hostel in case you have an accident. Police stations throughout the area have similar forms, and in hillwalking areas the police are usually very helpful to walkers. They are, after all, the first point of contact if a mountain rescue team has to be called out. In preparing this book I did all the Munros solo and frequently left details of where I was going at local police stations.

Bear in mind, though, that many of the smaller police stations in the Highlands – even in major climbing centres like Braemar – are not manned every day. Always speak to an officer just to be sure, otherwise the scribbled note you put through the letterbox describing your proposed route may not be picked up for several days. It may be better to contact one of the larger regional stations such as Fort William or Inverness. These are always manned and many of the staff will be knowledgeable about routes and well versed in rescue procedures should the need arise. It is of course essential that if you leave a route card with someone, you must return or ring them up to let them know you have got back safely. Mountain rescuers never mind going onto the hill to search for someone in trouble, but they do not take kindly to searching for someone who has gone home and forgotten, or simply not bothered, to tell anyone that they got back. The time and effort that go into such searches is often considerable.

In the event of an emergency, contact the local police or ring 999 and be prepared to say where the emergency has arisen, with a grid reference if at all possible. If you are carrying a mobile phone bear in mind that in large parts of the Highlands it is not possible to get a signal. Your best chance of getting a signal in many mountain areas may be high up on the summits, but even here it may not be possible.

When to Go

This guide has been written with the summer walker in mind. Summer conditions will usually prevail between May and September, although deep-lying snow can last into the summer in some high places, affecting the safety of otherwise ‘easy’ routes. ‘Winter’ storms are not uncommon in May or September – I have been caught out by snow in June! You should always obtain an up-to-date weather forecast from one of the many specialized forecast services before venturing into the Scottish hills. Avalanche warnings for specific areas are available on the internet at www.sais.gov.uk.

Beinn Narnain summit rocks from southeast approach (Route 68)

In winter conditions many routes may not be possible without strong all-round mountaineering experience. Navigation becomes more difficult, simple scrambles can become technical climbs, daylight is short and deteriorating weather can quickly lead to arctic conditions. Whilst a covering of snow can greatly add to the beauty and atmosphere of these mountains, remember that paths, cairns and other markers can quickly be obliterated; corniced ridges, snowdrifts and iced-up rock can make simple summer routes slow and fraught with danger. The Scottish hills should never be underestimated.

Enjoy them safely. Happy climbing!