The Cuillin Gordon Stainforth (1994)

Lovingly visual as well as textually informative, Gordon Stainforth's large-format masterpiece is essential for anyone wishing to linger on the magic of Scotland‘s prickliest mountain range. Stainforth‘s greatest skill is in his photography, which dominates the book – but this is more than simply a photostudy, and there is plenty more in here that shows off the ridge and its surrounds in a way that hasn‘t been bettered since. Not restricting itself purely to the Cuillin Ridge (the cover image is Blabheinn) and straddling all seasons, the book is a treasury of images and observations that effectively convey the magic of this wild place. Oddly, perhaps the only thing that dates this book is the kit worn by some of those featuring in the pictures. But in the same way that old climbing books showing hemp ropes and tweed breeches will immediately suggest a different generation of climbers, so too the baggy, purple fleeces and DayGlo Lycra of the 1990s will no doubt provide historical fascination in years to come.

The mountains, of course, do not age nearly as quickly – and luckily, these are the stars of this superb and increasingly covetable book.