The Mountainous Legacy of Hugh Munro

A century after his death, his achievements live on in a new exhibition

WHEN Hugh Munro compiled his list of Scottish mountains exceeding 3000ft (914m) in 1891, he could hardly have imagined it would still hold such significance today.

Munro’s Tables, published by the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC), have become the seminal guide to Scotland’s highest peaks, and despite minor debate over the years, the list remains largely intact.

The original list identified 283 mountains and 255 separate tops, but Munro – who became Sir Hugh in 1913 – recognised that it contained anomalies. He was working on a revised edition at the time of his death in March 1919, while running a canteen for Allied forces in France.

Now, on the centenary of his passing, a major exhibition is being held to celebrate his life and legacy to Scottish hillwalking. Organised by the Munro Society, the Munro Legacy Exhibition will run from March 5 to May 31 at the A K Bell Library in Perth. There are plans to then take it to various venues around the country, including a slot at the Dundee Mountain Film Festival in November.

A series of display panels are planned to chart the story of the Munros from mountain pioneers through the working class movement and the post-war years, to the changes in access rights and the Land Reform Act. These include Sir Hugh’s biography, the birth of the Tables, and the growing list of “compleaters” who have climbed all the Munros.

One of the great ironies is that Munro never managed to complete his own list. That honour went to the Reverend A E Robertson in 1901.

He is regarded as the first Munroist, although he never scaled the Inaccessible Pinnacle, instead following Munro’s list to the letter which had mistakenly registered the main, yet lower, peak of Sgurr Dearg as the summit. There is also doubt over whether he reached the top of Ben Wyvis.

By the time the second compleater came along – Rev Ronald Burn, 22 years later – the SMC had revised the list from Sir Hugh’s notes correcting earlier mistakes.

The number of Munros now stood at 276, seven less than originally recorded, but the number of Tops had risen by 12 for a grand total of 543. And this time, the In Pinn was included with Sgurr Dearg re-classified as a Top.

The scale and accuracy of Munro’s work was remarkable for its time, but constantly evolving and 