The Corbetts is the latest volume in the superb Scottish Mountaineering Club Hillwalkers’ Guides series. Like the earlier books, The Corbetts is beautifully designed and illustrated. According to the publishers, it’s the third edition of a guide first published in 1990 as The Corbetts & Other Scottish Hills but in fact it’s so different that it’s really a new book.
Main image: Across the Horns of Alligin from Sgùrr Mòr to Beinn Dearg, middle right, with flat-topped Stùc Loch na Cabhaig, left, Beinn Eighe beyond with Meall a’ Ghiuthais, left, and the distant Fannichs | Credit: Robert Durran
Everything is new – route descriptions, illustrations, maps. The format is bigger too, even though the ‘other’ hills have gone. The Corbetts are Scottish hills between 2500 feet (762m) and 3000 feet (914.4m) with a reascent of at least 500 feet (152m) on all sides. Although lower than Munros many are no easier and some are amongst the finest hills in Scotland. That 500+ feet of reascent means that linking Corbetts is hard work. Many are best climbed singly. They cover a wider area than the Munros too, with Corbetts in the Southern Uplands where there are no Munros and on six rather than two islands. These are hills deserving of respect. They deserve a book like this too.
The 1990 volume is good – my copy is well-thumbed. This glorious new guide is much better. Credit must go to the author Rab Anderson who also did the layout and took many of the photographs and to the publishers, the Scottish Mountaineering Press. The Introduction has a brief biography of John Rooke Corbett, who first compiled this list of hills in 1939, followed by notes on the route descriptions, safety, and other useful information.
The hills are organised into twenty geographical sections, each starting with a lovely double-page photo (I especially like the dramatic one for section 14 of Beinn Airigh Charr across Loch Maree) and then a map of the area with the Corbetts marked. There are maps for each hill or group of hills too. The maps are in colour and show the routes and the topography. They are lovely to look at but I must admit I find the simpler non-topographical maps of the original guide easier for actually locating the Corbetts.
The hill descriptions are excellent and have advice and information as well as the bare bones of the routes. Each one is accompanied by one or more photographs, most of them superb, some exceptional. This is a book you can browse just for the photographs. They certainly lured me in, reminding of many Corbetts I haven’t visited for many years and inspiring me to go and climb them again.
This is a book for all lovers of the Scottish Hills. You don’t have to be a Corbett bagger to enjoy it. You might be after flicking through its pages though!
The Corbetts by Rab Anderson is published by Scottish Mountaineering Press (£35, hardback).
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