The Munros

The list of distinct Scottish peaks of 3000ft (914.4m) and over, of "sufficient separation" from their neighbouring peaks. The list that was originally drawn up by Sir H.T. Munro in the Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal in 1891 was unfinished at the time of his death. Munro did not write down a precise definition of what he meant by "sufficient separation", though the character of a mountain did enter into it. Through regular use these hills have become known as the Munros. The current list contains 282 peaks.

The SMC maintains the list of Munros. In recent times the list has only been altered to reflect updates to nationally recognised topographic data (i.e. data recognised and adopted by the Ordnance Survey). We record all such changes as hill news.

Munro Tops

The list of distinct Scottish peaks of 3000ft and over, that fail to meet the criteria of "sufficient separation" from their neighbouring peaks (see above). There are currently 226 Munro Tops.

The Corbetts

The list of all peaks in Scotland with a height of 2500ft (762m) or more and less than 3000ft (914.4m) with a drop of at least 500ft (152.4m) between each peak and any higher land. The Corbetts are more clearly defined than is the case with the Munros, only the aforementioned rules and sufficiently detailed topographic data are necessary to reproduce the list of hills in the set.

John Rooke Corbett was a district valuer based in Bristol and a keen member of the Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) in the years between the two World Wars. He was a distinguished student at Cambridge University and an original member of the Rucksack Club. Corbett was a regular attendee at SMC meets, a committee member and joint editor of the second edition of the Northern Highlands guidebook. He completed the Munros and Tops in 1930, only the second person to do so and, more remarkably, he climbed all Scotland's 2000ft hills.

The Grahams

The list of all distinct peaks in Scotland which are 600m or more and less than 2500ft (762m) with a drop of at least 150m between each peak and any higher land. Like the Corbetts, this list is well defined and requires only the aforementioned rules and sufficiently detailed topographic data to reproduce the list of hills in the set.

Scottish hills within this height range were previously called Elsies (short for Lesser Corbetts - LCs). In 1992 Fiona Torbet (née Graham) published her own, similar, list of these hills. The original list of Elsies, and the new list were rationalised and combined by Fiona Torbet and Alan Dawson and this set of hills became known as the Grahams. Until 2022 the lower limit on the official list was 2000ft (609.6m). The official list of Grahams is maintained by Alan Dawson and can be found on The Relative Hills of Britain website. The definition of a Graham was changed by Alan Dawson in 2022, which led to 12 new Grahams being added to the list.

For SMC purposes it is not necessary to climb the 12 additional Grahams as we continue to maintain a record of people who have compleated the Grahams which are 2000ft or more.

The Donalds

Donald Tops are defined as elevations in the Scottish Lowlands of at least 2000ft (610m) in height with a drop of at least 50ft (15.2m) between each elevation and any higher elevation. Further, elevations separated from higher elevations by a drop of less than 100ft (30.5m) are required to have "sufficient topographical merit".

Donalds, or Donald Hills, are subsequently defined from Donald Tops, where a Hill is the highest Top with a separation of 17 units or less. A unit is either one twelfth of a mile along a Top's connecting ridge or 50ft (30.5m) in elevation between the Top and its connecting bealach/col. The separation is the sum of these two measures.

The current list contains 141 summits (89 Donalds and 52 Donald Tops). Dugland NS602009 (Windy Standard), a Donald Top, which was removed from Donald’s List of 2000ft Hills in 1997 due to lack of stature, returned to the list as a Donald Top on 18 th February 2021. Surveys and updated mapping by the Ordnance Survey have shown its height to be 612m and therefore over 610m (2000ft). The Keeper of the Tables confirmed its elevated status and acceptance back onto Donald’s List.