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. Members of The Munro Society have decided that this is an obligation they are willing to undertake and intend to carry out such monitoring as the Society's personnel and resources will allow. As a voluntary organisation of limited means, TMS perforce 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. It is contended that a Munro compleation, usually an activity measured in decades rather than years, provides sufficient experience for the person to make valid judgements regarding the wellbeing of all Scottish mountains, not just the Munros. The format of the Mountain Reports is deliberately non-prescriptive; this follows from a belief that it is best to allow individuals to set down observations derived from their particular interests and expertise. The result, it is hoped, will be a resource which will monitor change, both in the general and in the particular, and will allow decision-makers to arrive at policies which do not ignore the long-term wellbeing of the mountains.