The Munro Society

Welcome to Mountain Reports

Many people with a wide range of interests go to the Scottish hills and mountains and many more take pleasure from looking at them and being among them. Mountains are thought of as unchanging, but this is not so. The natural forces of frost and flood gradually, occasionally dramatically, bring about change in shape and form. More relevant are the changes wrought by human endeavour: forestry, recreation, power generation and much more. Few would argue that the Scottish Highland and Lowland hills are an irreplaceable asset which should be preserved for future generations, but who is monitoring change in the mountains?

The answer is that there has, until very recently, been no organisation prepared to make consistent and widespread observations on the changes taking place. The Munro Society has undertaken to carry out such monitoring as the Society's membership and resources will allow. As a voluntary organisation of limited means, TMS confines itself to maintenance of a database in which, over time, members record their personal observations of changes taking place - or not taking place - in the mountainous areas of Scotland.

Membership of The Munro Society is open to anyone who has completed a round of the Munros. A Munro compleation, often an activity measured in decades rather than years, provides sufficient experience for that person to make valid judgements regarding the mountain environment, not just an indiviudal Munro. Based on a template the reporting format allows contributors to record their observations after climbing mountains and hills, based on their particular interests and expertise. Initially aimed at providing a database of the Munros, the reports now cover Corbetts, Grahams, Donalds and other Scottish hills. TMS Mountain Reporting monitors change over time, both in the general and in the particular, with some mountains now having successive reports over a period of more than ten years. It is hoped this will allow decision-makers to arrive at policies which help to preserve the Scottish mountain environment.

Proceed to the The Mountain Reporting Web-site