page_title: Munro
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Munro / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Sir Hugh Munro, the creator of Munros Tables for mountains in Scotland.
context_page_description: A Munro is defined as a mountain in Scotland with a height over 3,000 feet, and which is on the Scottish Mountaineering Club official list of Munros; there is no explicit topographical prominence requirement. The best known Munro is Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles at 1,345 metres.
  Munros are named after Sir Hugh Munro, 4th Baronet, who produced the first list of such hills, known as Munro's Tables, in 1891. Also included were what Munro considered lesser peaks, now known as Munro Tops, which are also over 3,000 feet but are lower than the nearby primary mountain. The publication of the original list is usually considered to be the epoch event of modern peak bagging. The list has been the subject of subsequent variation and as of 10 August 2019, the Scottish Mountaineering Club has listed 282 Munros and 227 Munro Tops.
  "Munro bagging" is the activity of climbing all the listed Munros. As of 2 July 2020, 6,768 people had reported completing a round. The first continuous round was completed by Hamish Brown in 1974, whilst the record for the fastest continuous round is currently held by Stephen Pyke, who completed a round in just under 40 days in 2010.
context_section_description: Before the publication of Munro's Tables in 1891, there was much uncertainty about the number of Scottish peaks over 3,000 feet. Estimates ranged from 31 (in M.J.B. Baddeley's guides) to 236 (listed in Robert Hall's third edition of The Highland Sportsman and Tourist, published in 1884). When the Scottish Mountaineering Club was formed in 1889, one of its aims was to remedy this by accurately documenting 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 inches to the mile (1:10,560) and one-inch to the mile (1:63,360) maps.
  Munro researched and produced a set of tables that were published in the Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal in September 1891. The tables listed 538 summits over 3,000 feet, 282 of which were regarded as "separate mountains". The term Munro applies to separate mountains, while the lesser summits are known as Munro Tops. Munro did not set any measure of topographic prominence by which a peak qualified as a separate mountain, so there has been much debate about how distinct two hills must be if they are to be counted as two separate Munros.
  The Scottish Mountaineering Club has revised 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 Munro Tops not already considered summits, had a prominence of more than 500 feet (152.4 m). Given this they would have qualified as Corbett summits had they been under 3,000 feet. In the 1997 tables these three Munro Tops, on Beinn Alligin, Beinn Eighe and Buachaille Etive Beag, gained full Munro summit status. Dawson's book also highlighted a number of significant Munro Tops with as much as 197 feet (60 m) of prominence which were not listed as Munro Tops. The 1997 tables promoted five of these to full Munro status.
  197 Munros have a topographic prominence of over 150 m (492 ft) and are regarded by Peakbaggers as Real Munros. 88 Scottish mountains over 1000m, with a topographic prominence of over 200 m (656 ft) have been termed Metric Munros.
  Other classification schemes in Scotland, such as the Corbetts 2,500 to 3,000 ft (762–914 m) and Grahams 2,000 to 2,500 ft (610–762 m), require a peak to have a prominence of at least 500 feet (152 m) for inclusion. The Munros, however, lack a rigid set of criteria for inclusion, with many summits of lesser prominence listed, principally because their summits are hard to reach.
  During May and July 2009 the Munro Society re-surveyed several mountains that are known to be close to the 3,000 ft figure to determine their height more accurately. On 10 September 2009 the society announced that the mountain Sgùrr nan Ceannaichean, south of Glen Carron, had a height of 2,996 feet 10 inches (913.43 m). Therefore, the Scottish Mountaineering Club removed the Munro status of Sgùrr nan Ceannaichean and this mountain is now a Corbett. In a Summer 2011 height survey by The Munro Society, Beinn a' Chlaidheimh was found to be 2,998 feet 8 inches (914 m) and thus short of the Munro mark. On 6 September 2012, the Scottish Mountaineering Club demoted it from Munro to Corbett status. On 10 August 2019 the SMC confirmed that Mullach nan Coirean East Top had been added to the list of Munro Tops.
  As of 10 August 2019, the Scottish Mountaineering Club lists 282 Munros and 227 Munro Tops. The current SMC list; totals 509 summits.
caption: Sir Hugh Munro, 4th Baronet, creator of Munro's Tables
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