Munro

A Munro ( listen ) is a mountain in Scotland with a height over 3,000 feet (914 m). Munros are named after Sir Hugh Munro, 4th Baronet (1856–1919), who produced the first list of such hills, known as Munro's Tables, in 1891. A Munro top is a summit that is not regarded as a separate mountain and which is over 3,000 feet. In the 2012 revision of the tables, published by the Scottish Mountaineering Club, there are 282 Munros and 227 further subsidiary tops. Of these 200 have a topographic prominence of over 150 m (492 ft) and are regarded by Peakbaggers as Real Munros. There are 88 Metric Munros which are Scottish mountains over 1000m with a topographic prominence of over 200 m (656 ft). The best known Munro is Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in the British Isles.

The Munros of Scotland present challenging conditions to hikers, particularly in winter. A popular practice amongst hillwalkers is "Munro bagging", the aim being to climb all of the listed Munros. As of 2013, more than 5,000 had reported completing their round. The first continuous round of the Munros was completed by Hamish Brown in 1974, whilst the current holder of the record for the fastest continuous round is Stephen Pyke, who completed his 2010 round in just under 40 days.

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.

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