Kirriemuir plaques no. 1 - Sir Hugh Munro

Image: © David Purchase Taken: 17 Oct 2006

There are four plaques in Kirriemuir to the memory of famous residents: as I am a Munroist (no. 643) and keen hillwalker, this is the most important! The wording is rather unfortunate, as it suggests that Munro did not do a very good job, omitting 7 hills. In fact his list was based on the best mapping available at the time (the 1880s, and so not always that good); later changes have usually been based on better surveys (e.g. finding that a hill was above, rather than below 3,000 feet high, or had a more significant separation from neighbouring hills than Munro had realised). In this comment there will be no mention of the debate about the distinction between 'Munros' and 'Tops'! A better wording might have been '... and listed 277 Scottish Peaks above 3,000 feet (the current list has 284 peaks)'. That number has already changed again, but one can't expect stone plaques to be kept up to date.

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