A unique arts project to celebrate the centenary of the death of a significant outdoors figure in Scotland has been launched to great acclaim this month. Within weeks, there are less than 20 places left for people who want to join the project to walk all 282 Munros.
“The Munro Table” will remember Sir Hugh Munro, who died on March 19, 1919, and is credited with creating the UK’s most famous lists of mountain summits.
Munro, who grew up in the Scottish region of Angus, identified the Scottish mountains with a summit of more than 3000ft. These 282 mountains, from Ben Lomond in the south to Ben Hope in the north and including the tallest Ben Nevis, are known as the Munros.
He was also a founding member of the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC), in 1889.
The SMC keeps a record of walkers who register that they have reached the summit of all 282 Munros.
New Munro Table project
The Munro Table project is calling for walkers, runners and climbers to make a special trip to the summit of all the Munros.
Over the course of a year, each of these Munro baggers will record their summit, or summits, by writing an account and taking a photograph or creating an artwork at the top.
There are only 18 Munros left for people to put their name against.
Eddie Summerton, the creator of the project, said: “The aim is to collect together all the accounts, photographs and artworks from each summit to form an archival boxed set of Munro Table publications.
“The walkers involved will each have the experience of their mountain summit walk documented within two pages of the archival publication.”
Eddie envisages that the Munro baggers will write about a variety of experiences as they hike their Munro.
He said: “They might document the flora or fauna, the weather, which route they took, why they chose this hill, or whatever they would like to report on.
“The addition of a photo taken at the summit, or a piece of art sketched or painted, will help other people to envisage what their mountain walk was like.”
Participants in the project are also asked to remove a small bag of rubbish, if any, from a summit as an acknowledgment to the incredible access we have to our landscape in Scotland.
Eddie is also an artist and part-time lecturer at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art.
He said: “I wanted to create a unique and artistically creative record of this specialyear, 100 years after the death of Sir Hugh Munro.
“My vision is to see the archival publication stored within – and presented on – a bespoke table fabricated from wood from Lindertis, Kirriemuir, which was the family home of Munro.
“In due course, The Munro Table will be displayed in a variety of locations such as galleries, educational venues and at festivals, for other to see.
“It would be fantastic if The Munro Table could also be installed in a public collection in Scotland for future reference.
“I hope it will form a poignant legacy to Munro.”
Munro baggers keen to join Munro Table
There has been a great response to the project. Eddie said: “It has been great to see how quickly people have signed up to take part. Many of these people are women, which is good. This includes the super woman of the Munros, Hazel Strachan!
“We have someone who wants to go up a Munro with their granddad, who was in the mountain rescue for years and is just recovering from an operation.
“We have school groups, clubs and a few dogs in there, too. We even have some folk from Flanders signing up when they come to Scotland this summer to walk.”
As an addition to the Munro project, Edward plans to organise the funding for 282 high altitude trees to be planted to acknowledge the contribution from the individuals involved.
* To find out more and to sign up to walk and document your summit see The Munro Table.
Who was Sir Hugh Munro?
Sir Hugh Thomas Munro, 4th Baronet, was a Scottish mountaineer who is best known for his list of mountains in Scotland over 3,000ft,
He was born in London on October 16, 1856, and was the fifth child of Sir Campbell Munro, 3rd Baronet, and also a grandson of Sir Thomas Munro, 1st Baronet of Lindertis.
He was brought up in on the family estate near Kirriemuir in Angus.
His list of 3,000ft mountains was published in the sixth issue of the Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal in 1891.
At the time, the list seemed surprising because until then many mountaineers believed there were around 30 mountains of 3000ft or more, not the 255 he originally listed.
These mountains, now known as Munros, are now the focus of a hobby called Munro bagging.
Over the years after re-measuring the list has fluctuated and now sits at 282 Munros.
More than 6000 people have completed a full round of all the Munros.
Sadly, Munro died before he was able to finish his list of mountains.
The first person to achieve the feat of climbing all of the mountains on Munro’s list is believed to be the Rev A E Robertson in 1901.
Munro died in France on March 19, 1919, aged 63, of post-war pneumonia.