Munro - History

History

Before 1891 and the publication of Munros Tables there was considerable uncertainty about the number of peaks in Scotland over 3,000 feet. Estimates ranged from as few as 31 in the guides written by M.J.B. Baddeley, up to 236 listed by Robert Hall in the third edition of The Highland Sportsman and Tourist, published in 1884. One of the aims of the Scottish Mountaineering Club, formed in 1889, was to rectify this situation and accurately document all of Scotland's mountains over 3,000 feet. Sir Hugh Munro, a founding member of the Club, took on the task using his own experience as a mountaineer, as well as detailed study of the Ordnance Survey Six-inch to the mile and One-inch to the mile map series.

Munro's research produced a set of tables which were published in the Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal in September 1891. They listed 538 summits over 3,000 feet, of which 282 were regarded as "separate mountains"; the term Munro applies to the latter, while the lesser summits are known as tops. Munro did not set any measure of topographic prominence by which a peak qualified as a separate mountain, and much debate has since taken place over how distinct two hills must be if they are to be considered as two separate Munros.

The Scottish Mountaineering Club have carried out a number of revisions of the tables, both in response to new height data on Ordnance Survey maps and to address the perceived inconsistency as to which peaks qualify for Munro status. In 1992, the publication of Alan Dawson's book Relative hills of Britain, showed that three tops not already considered summits, had a prominence of more than 500 feet (152 m). Given this they would have qualified as Corbett summits had they been under 3,000 feet. In the 1997 tables these three tops, on Beinn Alligin, Beinn Eighe and Buachaille Etive Beag, gained full Munro summit status. Dawson's book also highlighted a number of significant tops with as much as 60 metres (197 ft) of prominence which were not listed as Munro subsidiary tops. The 1997 tables promoted five of these to full Munro status.

Other classification schemes in Scotland, such as the Corbetts 2,500–3,000 ft (760–910 m) and Grahams 2,000–2,500 ft (610–760 m), require a peak to have a prominence of at least 500 feet for inclusion. The Munros however, still lack a rigid set of criteria for inclusion, with many summits of lesser prominence listed, principally due to time or distance factors rendering their summits difficult to reach. The 1997 tables ironed out many anomalies, but despite it being the highest-profile hill list in UK, it is still considered by some to be not wholly satisfactory.

During May and July 2009 several mountains were re-surveyed by the Munro Society to determine a more accurate height reading for those mountains which are known to be close to the 3,000 ft figure. In a press release on 10 September 2009 it was announced that the mountain Sgùrr nan Ceannaichean, south of Glen Carron, has a height of 913.43 metres (2,996.8 ft). As a result of the re-surveys the Scottish Mountaineering Club removed the Munro status of Sgùrr nan Ceannaichean and this mountain is now a Corbett.

Following a Summer 2011 height survey by The Munro Society, Beinn a' Chlaidheimh was confirmed by the SMC in September 2012 as having been demoted from Munro to Corbett status.

As of September 2012, the Scottish Mountaineering Club lists 282 Munros and 227 further subsidiary tops.