NAN SHEPHERD published her little book about the Cairngorms, The Living Mountain, in 1977 although she had actually written it years earlier, during the '40s and '50s. One quote from the book that may be sacrilege to the modern hill-bagger is this: "To aim for the highest point is not the only way to climb a mountain. We must abandon the summit as the organising principle of mountains."
Comparatively few people were climbing Scotland's hills and mountains in Nan Shepherd's day, and very few of them were Munro-baggers. Our earlier hill-goers were predominantly climbers and the others were generally botanists, geologists or ornithologists. Climbing the three-thousanders is a comparatively modern obsession.
When Shepherd finished writing The Living Mountain in 1955 only 24 people had climbed all the Munros, according to the Scottish Mountaineering Club's list of "compleaters". By the time it was published 22 years later, only 160 folk had registered with the Scottish Mountaineering Club as compleaters and when I completed my first round of Munros in 1991 I was listed as No.913. The end of that year saw the first thousand Munro compleaters, 90 years after the Rev AE Robertson's very first recorded round.
Fast forward 32 years to the present day and the list has exploded to somewhere in the region of 7,500-8,000 - and I think that gives us a perspective on the growth in the number of people walking, running and biking on the Scottish mountains. It's perhaps not surprising that our mountain footpaths, many of which were originally built for only a handful of stalking parties a year, are suffering from overuse, and such overuse can have severe consequences for the wider environment.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September 2023-Ausgabe von The Scots Magazine.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der September 2023-Ausgabe von The Scots Magazine.
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The Bliss Of A Bothy
After a strenuous walk, a mountain shelter can offer all you need
The Long Way Round
When you can only just see the stepping stones under a river in spate, it's time to re-think the route, as two Highland adventurers found out
The New Oyster Cult
A community is helping to restore the once rich biodiversity of Loch Craignish, one species at a time
A Poet's Sanctuary
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A Rural Housing Crisis
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A Historic Centre
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A Bird With A Brain
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The Warrior King
On the 750th anniversary of his birth, Robert The Bruce's legacy as cultural keystone and historical enigma continues to fascinate
All Going Swimmingly
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Following The Coos
The latest charity art trail aims to a-moos-e and delight visitors to Perth and Kinross this summer