The Munros

The Munros

The Munros; a Walkhighlands Guide
Paul and Helen Webster

This chunky little guidebook opens with a seemingly contentious statement: “Look beneath the waterproofs of any keen hillwalker in Scotland and, once past the midge bites, it’s likely you will find a Munro-bagger.”

Hang on, I thought. Munrobaggers are a certain type of mountain-goer; obsessed with ticking off another one on the list; the trainspotters of the outdoor world. There are plenty of other worthy hills and mountains north of the border.

Then I examined my own excursions to the uplands of Scotland and had to admit, apart from a day spent in the Moffat hills, every ascent to the high ground had included at least one munro.

I suppose, being the biggest, they draw the keen walker. Look towards the peak of a munro and, if you have any outdoor soul, you will want to be up there.

So this compact, if thick, softback guide is a comprehensive guide to the 3,000-footers, at present numbering 282, which the Scottish Mountaineering Club, guardian of the gilded list, has decided qualify as munros.

The secondary peaks, or munro tops, are not given any special status in this volume, unlike some guidebooks.

Authors Paul and Helen Webster run the popular Walkhighlands website and there are copious plugs for the site within the pages of the book, which become a little tiresome after a while.

However, the style is informal and light and there are features I like. Each mountain is graded for terrain and hazards – which has to be subjective to some degree – but is a good starting point for anyone cautious of more difficult rocky routes.

There is an explanation of the meaning of the mountains’ names though no attempt at phonetically spelling out the pronunciation of Gaelic toponymy.

There is notation on public transport though throughout large tracts of the Highlands this is pretty much non-existent.

Each walk has an estimated time, distance, ascent in metres and a handy six-figure grid reference for the starting point. All the essentials for an excursion up the munro. There is a schematic map of each route, but not one detailed enough to use while walking. The OS map is still an essential piece of kit for each ascent.

The munros are arranged by area, roughly working south to north, with the isles of Skye and Mull completing the set.

There are plenty of colour photographs and information on accommodation although, with time, this is likely to become somewhat out of date.

The book is rounded off with an alphabetical index for those who wish to search for a particular mountain.

The Munros is a chunky little book

The Munros is a chunky little book

Although compact in dimensions, at 10.5 x 14.7cm, The Munros is thick – almost 4cm thick – so will make a weighty and bulky addition to a rucksack. It’s a problem circumvented by other publishers by splitting the whole into northern and southern sections.

Apart from this grouse, The Munros is a handy guide: comprehensive, well written and informative.

Now, where’s that anorak?

The Munros; a Walkhighlands Guide, by Paul and Helen Webster.
Published by pocket mountains ltd, 672 pages
Price: £12.99