The Munros

About the Book: 

The mountains provide the spiritual nourishment so essential to a truer understanding of the hills and, ultimately, ourselves.

Munro bagging is a headily addictive pursuit, with the holy-grail of ‘compleation’ the ultimate aim, currently achieved by around 7,000 Munroists.

It all began in 1891 when Sir Hugh Munro’s Tables of 3,000-foot Scottish mountains appeared in The Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal. Since then, this innocent compilation of hills has become a hallowed hit-list.

Andrew Dempster traces the meandering course of this cult activity, which has gone from trickle to torrent in the space of a century. From early map-makers to current record-breakers, from the why and the wry to wildness and well-being, The Munros: A History explores the compulsions and philosophies underpinning the Munro phenomenon.

Reviews: 

A wide-ranging and thoroughly-researched account of how mountains over 3,000 ft came to be a big deal in Scotland, and it also contains a lively chapter exploring the age-old schism between those who like to walk "up" mountains, à la Hugh Munro, and those who prefer to walk "into" them, à la Nan Shepherd. THE SCOTSMAN

If you’re addicted to the spirit of bagging this is an essential read. SCOTTISH FIELD

A marvellous book […] It contains a huge amount of research presented in an entertaining and readable style. CHRIS TOWNSEND

About the Author:

ANDREW DEMPSTER has almost 40 years’ experience of walking, scrambling and backpacking in the Scottish Highlands and Islands. He has climbed all the Munros twice and the Corbetts, and wrote the only guidebook to the Grahams (mountains 2,000–2,500 feet in height). He has also walked, trekked and climbed extensively in such varied locations as the Alps, the Pyrenees, the Himalaya, Africa, Iceland and Greenland. The Highlands of Scotland are his first love, however, and he lives in rural Perthshire with his wife, Heather and son, Ruaraidh.