Chris Townsend Outdoors: On the 100th aniversary of the death of Sir Hugh Munro

Braeriach & Ben Macdui

One hundred years ago on the 19th March 1919 Sir Hugh Munro died. His name lives on in the Scottish mountains over 3,000 feet high. Back in 1891 he compiled a list of these for the Scottish Mountaineering Club, a list ever since known as Munro's Tables. Despite the introduction of decimal measurements many decades ago - even the Tables now give the hills in metres - the romance of Sir Hugh's list has carried forward with hundreds of hillwalkers setting out to complete all 282 Munros (something Munro himself never achieved - he had two left when he died).

The Munro Society has an exhibition called The Munro Legacy at the AK Bell Library in Perth until May 18, after which it will be touring round Scotland. I went to see this last week and it's excellent (disclaimer, I may be biased as I do have a small mention in it!).

The exhibition tells ' the story of Sir Hugh’s life, the birth of the Tables, the growth of completers, the pioneers, the working class movement, the post war years, recent times and, of course, the Munro Society. Other subjects included are developments impacting on our hills, youth on our hills and Munros and wild land.'

On display are many historic items including Sir Hugh’s aneroid barometer, the ice axe used by the first Munroist, the Rev A. E. Robertson, and a copy of the original Munro’s Tables.

In honour of Sir Hugh many hillwalkers have been posting their favourite Munros. I've been asked a few times and always say Ben Macdui. Actually though it's impossible to really say, there are so many magnificent ones. Here are a dozen of my favourites.