UKC

I've just looked at the Harvey's An Teallach map, and find that Beinn a' Chlaidheimh is now 916 metres high, so must be reinstated as a Munro, must it not?

don't know its history, did it get demoted following a measure ?

http://www.hill-bagging.co.uk/mountaindetails.php?qu=S&rf=1024

No. Still a Corbett. 

A "secret" Munro? Cover-up, Conspiracy! 

Check the link I gave. Not 916m. Remeasured in 2011. Just under 914m. 2999 feet. Harvey's map must be an old one.

That's what they want you to think...

bring a step-stool with you next time you go up it, and you get to join the secret Munro club

It is a cover up. If you go up there you'll find the winter we're all missing, icicles, frost and everything.

Well I only bought that map in September 2021!

It was certainly a Munro when I climbed it quite a long time ago, with a hangover, after a session of whisky drinking, and being entertained by fire breathing at a certain bothy nearby. :-} 

It was demoted after that.

It could be part of the Foinaven four, or something.

Well Harveys can't have updated it.

Haven't heard of "Foinaven four." I have a great armchair interest in hills so would like to know about this. Thanks.

It's just me having a bit of fun being alliterative; but it could be contrived with a little thought. Hills that are mostly Munros in nature. They've just worn down a bit over time.

Thanks. There is an ever increasing number of South Shiel Seven, Mounth Five, etc. I thought this was another one. Just off to do the King's Park One. (69m, 31m prominence.) No oxygen required.

A fine ascent - I can see my house from there.

Do you (or Keith) ever tackle the direttissima via the West Face above the cemetery?

Hope you didn't get caught in that snow shower just now - I was out along the road at the other side of town and got ambushed - felt more wintry than anything in January. (But it's clearing now.)

600-odd since the lockdowns started (as per the hill database) is good going - do you always visit the summit tree? I did 40-odd last year - as with Abbey Craig and Gallow Hill it was a useful way of having a day off during the Daily Tump game. At one stage as you'll recall there was a tricky crevasse to negotiate where Murray Cook had been having one of his archaeological digs.

Yes, a horrible trend; reducing nice areas with actual names to numbers for baggers.

It all started with the Seven Hills of Rome.

Now known as The Rome Seven.

That's not the half of it - various of the real hard-core baggers now tend to speak in a kind of code - "I was up two P30s and a P15 plus a Donald Dewey", etc.

Mind you it's been around for ages, at least to an extent - I think the "Vair Pair" gets a mention in Hamish Brown's great Munros walk book. The Fisherfield Six was in use for at least a couple of decades, possibly longer. Personally I don't really mind as long as folk do actually use the general name - it's when things get reduced to letters/numbers/code that it seems disrespectful to the hill.

Being an obsessive I always stand on the root of the tree, Dave. - Although twice last year I had to make do with the high point just to the left of the path while the digs were going on. I've been walking round the King's Park most days since I got my dog 6 years ago. It's about 25 minutes walk to the high point from my house if I go clockwise from the tennis courts. Take my injured neighbour's dog round twice a week as well. Never tried the direct route from near the cemetery. - Suspect I never will! (Old age is a terrible thing! Until you contemplate the alternative.)

Bloody hell. That's even worse than "Ballachulish Horseshoe". Arguably.....

That is the one I hate the most.

Me too! Someone on the hill bagging site seems to think the little wooden post (presumably marking an earlier dig) is the top, which is clearly wrong. As is the strange note in the main database - "Summit feature: no feature".

I've not tried it either but might do so on a nice day this coming spring/summer. My late friend Ken Stewart (whom you'll recall meeting - there was a Coatbridge connection) was up the steep way just a few months before he died, at age 75, so there's hope!

I'm also quite tempted by the Wallace's Pass route up Abbey Craig, despite the warning signs from some ancient incarnation of the town council, but it's very visible from the road so might need to await a foggy day.

So I'll have to see if I can curate and grow the idea of the Foinaven Four, just to keep you on your irritation toes..

Now let me see, which peaks shall I choose for the other two?

(At least this give you chance to register a valid dislike of this message).

Have just checked - it is, as I remembered, the chapter heading for the relevant day in Hamish's book - although it's weirdly misprinted as "The Vair Fair" in the 2010 Sandstone edition. The Gollancz original came out in 1978 and the actual walk was in 1974, so Vair Pair has been around for a good while - although I've not heard it used recently and it might well have been superseded by the Ballachulish Horseshoe. (This is making me want to go back - fine group of hills; I haven't been on them since 2009, yikes.)

( referring to bagspeak )Not this one and I am enjoying a coffee outdoors in sunny East Lothian fondly remembering the days when you could pick up a new Munro in Nevisport

A couple of favourites we held some hope for Sgurr a Choire Bheithe and Beinn Bhreac . Make it six and chuck in a couple of Beinn Deargs

I was out in the Peak Ethel bagging yesterday with one of the parishioners. Anyone overhearing our conversations would be might confused.

Very good. Going back to the Ethel bagging thread with Iain T et al the other day, as an active participant do you know why some things (eg Alport Height and to a lesser extent Crich Stand) aren't included?

It was clear day and some of the chat centred why that lump over there wasn't on the list? I don't think we came up with any convincing answers. Certainly height or access issues doesn't cover it. Once I've compleated this list we're going to have draw up a Sub-Ethel list. That should keep us out of trouble for a bit!

Sounds good. It is all a bit mysterious, not that that's in itself a bad thing - too many of the modern lists seem intent on stripping any mystery and vagueness (and, some would say, fun) out of the game.

As an ex-local it feels wrong that Crich Stand isn't in there - it should surely be at least a Sub-Ethel. From where I was brought up just on the coal measures side of things, Crich was traditionally seen as where the Peak District started, sort of.

I never use the dislike button on principle; if I am angry enough to respond, I put it in writing.

I always took the “Vair Pair” to be a Broonism, he seems to produce affectionate nicknames for a lot of hills.

You could well be right - and it'd be nigh on impossible to do any textual-analysis search for earlier usages given that there weren't really any books of that sort until Hamish's appeared. Hope he's OK - I sent a Christmas card/letter and unusually haven't as yet heard back.

Yes I have done that route but only in winter when the prolific jaggies are easier to spot. It is a real fight in summer. There is another nice ascent from near the nursery at Homesteads which is also best in summer.

I absolutely cherish the existance of the Fisherfield 6 (or 5 or 5+1).

It focuses the Bagging footfall on grasping for a 6 via the Shenevall side....

....leaving the sublime Poolewe approach, the enjoyable Heights of Kinlohewe approach and the Slabs approach with a very low footfall. It also sees the amazing NW ridge of A'Mhaighdean very quiet, while the baggers head up the rather bland side of the hill.

There is a significant Silver Lining!

Thanks - I'll have a look at those in due course. Is quite funny that the thread is combining discussion of Fisherfield and Stirling King's Park!

Very good point!

Another example of this (there are lots) is on Ben Lawers. I'm fond of going up the E ridge, an excellent route in its upper section and more popular in earlier times. It's completely normal to go up that way, meet absolutely no one, then see upwards of 50 people on the 15-minute descent to the Beinn Ghlas col.

When I decided to do third Munro round Beinn a'Bheithir was the only Munros I wasn't sure whether or not I had done third time (I hadn't kept records), so I had to assume not and do them anyway. Now I'm not sure whether I've doe them 4 or 5 times, but there are lots like that - I'm definitely not recording beyond 4 times!

Three rounds (and beyond) is very good going. I'll happily see out my days with just one round in the locker. I'm interested in - and now not too far off - a calendar round of Munros, but that's a different game.

What is a calendar round?