Walk This Wayne: Marilyns . . Munros . . . . Grahams and Corbetts . . . who ?

Marilyn's (sub 2,000 feet)- a pun on Munro's - are hills that rise 500 feet about their surrounding area and are under 2,000 feet. Scotland has 1,216 Marilyn's in total spread all around the country.

No one has ever climbed all the Marilyns due to two being located on the very remote isle of St.Kilda's in the Atlantic Ocean.

Some notable Marilyns :

Arthur's Seat - Volcanic Plug in the middle of Edinburgh

Scald Law - Highest peak in the Pentland range south of Edinburgh

Cairnpapple Hill - Near bathgate, this hill has a prehistoric henge and cairn on it's summit

Conic Hill - Sits on the banks of Loch Lomond and can be climbed as part of the West Highland Way

Eildon Mid Hill - a triumvirate of shapely summits lying just south of Melrose

Carnethy hill in the Pentlands

Grahams (2,000 to 2,499 feet) - These are mountains over 2,000 to 2,499 feet high, there also has to be a drop of at least 500 feet on all sides. There are 224 Graham's in Scotland.

Some notable Graham's :

Ben Cluech - Highest mountain in the Ochills near Stirling.

Tinto - A popular hill near Lanark in the central belt

Suilven - An incredibly dramatic hill in Sutherland, very popular.

Marsco - Situated on the isle of Skye and regarded as possibly having the finest views out of all the Grahams.

Ben Venue - Popular hill on the banks of Loch Katrine

Corbetts (2,500 to 2,999 feet) -

Munros (3,000 feet+) - Any mountain in Scotland with a height of over 3,000 feet (or 914.4metres). These are named after the famous mountaineer Sir Hugh Munro, the first person to successfully list all hills of this height in 1891 when he published his Munro Table.

In 2009 the list of Munro's was updated and currently there are a total of 283, with 227 "subsidiary tops". A subsidiary top or Munro Top is a summit over 3,000 feet which isn't thought of as being a separate mountain, so there you have it.

Scotland's mountains are some of the oldest mountains in the world. At one point they rivaled the Alps in height, but over the course of millions of years and several ice ages they have been weathered and eroded to a much more modest size.

"Munro Bagging" is when you complete a successful "round"of Munro's, basically reaching the trig point or summit on every listed Munro top. The first recorded complete round was finished as recently as 1974 and since then an estimated 4,000 people have completed the round, some on numerous occasions.

Some well known Munros

Ben Nevis - Highest of the Munros and the highest mountain in the UK

Schiehallion - Famous for the "Schiehallion experiment" and the mountain where contour lines were developed.

Buachaille Etive Mor - Picturesque mountain guarding the entrance to Glencoe

Lochnagar - Located near Balmoral and written about by Prince Charles

Ben Lawers - 10th highest Munro situated on the northern shore of Loch Tay

Ben Lomond - Scotlands most Southerly Munro