Scottish Grahams

The Grahams

The third tier of Scottish hill lists covers summits between 2,000 and 2,500 feet with at least 150 meters of prominence. The list was compiled separately by Alan Dawson and Fiona Torbet (née Graham) in the early 1990s and named for Torbet after her death; the Scottish Mountaineering Club adopted it and today recognizes 219 Grahams. They sit below the Corbetts in height but not in interest — lower hills in Scotland often mean coastal ones, island ones, and hills in the Southern Uplands with views the Munros can't match.

That geographic spread is the point. The Grahams take you to Skye's Trotternish ridge and the Quiraing, to Harris, Jura, and Arran, to the Galloway hills and the Moffat hills in the Borders, and to parts of the Highlands — Ardgour, Morvern, Sutherland — where there isn't a Munro for miles. Beinn Talaidh on Mull tops the list at 762 meters; Ben Loyal's neighbors in the far north and the Paps of Jura are the ones walkers come back talking about.

Completing the set

Most people come to the Grahams after the Munros and Corbetts, which is why compleaters are rare and the summits are quiet. They're shorter days, which makes them ideal for winter and for the weeks when the higher tops are in cloud. Heights and positions follow the Database of British and Irish Hills; summits are grouped by area, south to north. Click a badge or its pin to mark one climbed, again for want-to-climb.

Lists within lists

The Grahams overlap with two other lists worth knowing. The Donalds are the hills over 2,000 feet in the Scottish Lowlands, compiled by Percy Donald in the 1930s; many Borders and Galloway Grahams are Donalds too. The Marilyns, Alan Dawson's list of every British hill with 150 meters of prominence regardless of height, include all the Grahams by definition. In 2023 the Grahams were formally redefined to use the Marilyn prominence rule, which tidied up the edges of the list; this map follows that definition via the Database of British and Irish Hills.