Munro Bagging

Each major claim carries one of three labels. established means supported by primary records, official bodies or several independent reliable sources. shared means the core fact is sound but sources disagree on details, dates or interpretation. traditional means widely repeated but not traceable to a primary or independent source.

The list itself is a matter of record, kept by the Scottish Mountaineering Club. Its weakness is that Munro never set fixed rules for what counts as a separate mountain rather than a Top, so the number has always involved judgement. Stories about the first completers, and about Munro's own unfinished round, are partly anecdote.

Sir Hugh Munro and his tables

established Sir Hugh Munro, born in London in 1856, was a founder member of the Scottish Mountaineering Club in 1889. In September 1891 the club's journal published his tables of all the Scottish mountains over 3,000 feet. His tables covered 538 summits, which he divided into separate mountains, now called Munros, and subsidiary Tops.

shared Sources disagree slightly on how many separate mountains the 1891 tables contained, giving 282 or 283.

What counts as a Munro?

established Munro never set fixed rules for distinguishing a separate mountain from a Top, and the Scottish Mountaineering Club still applies no strict prominence requirement. That has made the list a matter of judgement and debate. It has been revised many times, most heavily in 1997. Modern surveying has also removed hills that fell just short: Sgùrr nan Ceannaichean in 2009, and in 2012 Beinn a' Chlaidheimh in the Fisherfield Forest, which a 2011 Munro Society survey measured at 913.96 metres, just under 3,000 feet. It became a Corbett, and the list fell to 282 Munros. By contrast, the Corbett and Graham lists do have a fixed requirement of 500 feet of prominence.

Munro's unfinished round

established Sir Hugh Munro never completed his own list. He never climbed Carn Cloich-mhuilinn in the Cairngorms, which he is said to have been saving for his last, and there is no record that he climbed the Inaccessible Pinnacle on Skye, which was not on either version of the list published in his lifetime. He died at Tarascon in southern France in March 1919, during the post-war influenza pandemic, aged 62.

The first Munroist

shared The Rev. Archibald Eneas Robertson, a Church of Scotland minister, is generally regarded as the first person to climb all the Munros, finishing on Meall Dearg on the Aonach Eagach ridge in Glen Coe in 1901. He is said to have kissed the cairn and then his wife, and to have celebrated with champagne. There is doubt, though, over Ben Wyvis: it is not certain that he reached its summit.

Bagging today

established By the end of 2023, 7,654 people were registered with the Scottish Mountaineering Club as having completed the Munros. Hamish Brown made the first continuous round in 1974. In June 2023 Jamie Aarons set the record for the fastest continuous round, in 31 days, 10 hours and 27 minutes.

• Munro's 1891 tables listed 538 summits over 3,000 feet.
• Sir Hugh Munro never completed his own list.
• Beinn a' Chlaidheimh lost its Munro status by about 17 inches (43 cm).
• The first Munroist is said to have kissed the cairn and then his wife.
• It is not certain that the first Munroist reached the top of Ben Wyvis.
• The fastest continuous round of the Munros took 31 days.
• More than 7,600 people have completed the Munros.
• Corbetts and Grahams have fixed prominence rules; Munros do not.

• Do not say Sir Hugh Munro completed his own list.
• Do not say Munro climbed the Inaccessible Pinnacle; there is no record that he did.
• Do not present Robertson's first completion as beyond doubt; Ben Wyvis is uncertain.
• Do not give the number of Munros as fixed for all time; it has changed repeatedly.
• Do not say Munros must have a set prominence; they do not.