With its trinity of very lowly hills, Ben Hynish, Ben Hough and Kenavara, Tiree will never experience the cut-throat world of mountain
classification. All three hills are under 150 metres and are well out
of the running for Corbett or Munroe status.
One of Scotland’s Munros has recently been demoted, taking the total number of the highest hills in Scotland from 284 to 283. Sgurr Nan Ceannaichean will henceforth be classified as a Corbett by the Munro Society, who announced the change at a press conference recently.
The mountain, in the far north, is now officially listed at 913.43m, just under the magic 914.4m (3000ft) mark.
Three other hills, in the frame for reclassification, have had their official height changed but remain in their groups. Beinn Teallach has had 40cm taken off its peak, but remains a Munroe. Ben Vane has ‘grown’ 76cm and is now recorded as 915.76m. One of the highest Corbetts, Sgurr a’ Choire-bheithe, has had 32cm added to now total 913.32m, but remains in the second grouping.
It all reminds me of earlier days when my sister and I used to stand against the doorframe in the kitchen to have our heights ‘officially’ recorded by a pencil mark. At least our recorded heights always increased and we were never demoted – unless there had been some judicious amendments carried out in the night!!!
Ben Hough
We harked back to marking heights on the kitchen door frame the other day. We were finding our "Ape index". It turns out, as a family, we are very ape-like ... our span is 4 or 5 inches more than our heights.
Posted by: Liz Marshall | August 25, 2011 at 09:57 AM