Are you the sort of person who picks up a guidebook of Munros and turns immediately to the pages of the Munro summits you have not done, or do you seek out the Munros you most liked, or perhaps you head first for the most well-known Munros, such as Ben Nevis and Ben Lomond. When I opened The Munros – The Complete Collection of Maps, I sought out the maps of my last nine Munros in my first round.
In fact, rather bizarrely, the book, published by Harvey Maps, opened at Beinn na Lap on Page 88 and 89. There, rising above Loch Ossian, was my final Munro summit of my first round. I studied the map further and spotted the two Munros, Carn Dearg and Sgor Gaibhre, that I had walked with Gordie many years previously.
Then I turned to the Fisherfield five on pages 194 and 195. I looked at the Munros and traced the potential route with my finger, checking out the rise and fall of the landscape, clearly detailed by the contour lines and coloured areas.
The Munros book
The book was published in 2019 by map-makers Harvey Maps to mark the centenary of the death of Sir High Munro, the founder of the Munros List. It includes an interesting introductory section that informs the reader what to expect in the book, as well as map symbols and scales; details about Harvey Maps; and how the maps are created. Harvey Maps has a great history.
Every one of the 282 Munros (Scottish mountains with a summit of more than 3000ft) is marked on a map. Some maps have just one Munro and most have multiple Munros in one area.
The maps are a delight. They are both beautiful and useful.
At the back of the book is a section about Sir Hugh Munro and also the list of all 282 Munros.
It is a wonderful coffee table book. I have picked it up, looked through, put it down, picked it up again and looked at other maps. It’s a lovley way to head off down memory lane to places I have walked before and also to look ahead to walking in new areas.
These days, there is a wealth of information on-line of how to walk the Munros, as well as maps that can be used as GPX files on various map reading apps. Yet, still, I do like an actual map to look at.
The book RRPs at £35. Buy from Harvey Maps and other books shops, including Amazon (I receive a small commission for each Amazon sale.)
- The book was sent to me without charge for an honest review.