Cnoc Coinnich, in the Arrochar Alps, Argyll, has been officially upgraded to a Corbett, bringing the new Corbetts total to 222 mountains.
With the wonders of modern technology there was always going to be a few changes to the famous mountain lists in Scotland. This time it is the Corbetts, the Scottish mountains with a summit of between 2,500ft (762m) and 3,000ft (914.4m) and with at least 500ft (152.4m) of drop separating it from the next higher mountains.
Cnoc Coinnich, which was previously thought to be 761m, has joined the Corbetts list after being measured in May by G&J Surveys (supported by the Scottish Mountaineering Trust). It will now be seen on OS maps as 764m.
It was Graham Jackson and John Barnard, of G&J, that made the discovery after a windy walk in May to the summit of Cnoc Coinnich.
John said: “When we reach the mountain top the summit seemed obvious. The cairn was perched on a large pointed outcrop of rock with a near vertical east face. About 40m to the south was a second high point, but this did look lower.
“Our work with our surveyor’s level and staff soon showed this to be the case and this second high point was in fact 1.2m lower.
“Next we investigated the cairn and again we soon found that the highest point of the mountain was on the very edge of the crag, just under the edge of the cairn.
View from summit of Cnoc Coinnich. Pic credit: Marion McCune on Creative Commons licence.
“To set up the GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite System) receiver here was risky, as it could easily have fallen over the crag if caught by the wind which was gusting to 25mph. But we took the chance and weighed down the legs of the tripod with rocks and relied on the fact that the wind, which was coming from the east, would not change direction. Fortunately it didn’t!”
Ordnance Survey asks for the two hours of data to be collected in order to ensure a robust data set. When the data was processed the height of Cnoc Coinnich was found to be 763.5m, 2.5m higher than given on the maps.
This height will be rounded to 764m on future Ordnance Survey maps. This result has been accepted by The Scottish Mountaineering Club and Cnoc Coinnich has duly been raised to the rank of Corbett.
Rab Anderson, of the SMC, said: “This is a very interesting and unexpected result but it confirms that there are still possible changes to be made to the heights of hills in the UK when detailed measurements are carried out. The Scottish Mountaineering Club is pleased that the new height will appear on Ordnance Survey maps to the benefit of the wider hill walking community.”
Walk Cnoc Coinnich.