Sgurr an Iubhair [Sgor an Iubhair]

About Sgurr an Iubhair [Sgor an Iubhair]

Sgùrr an Iubhair is the heartbreaking poster child for Munro demotion, sitting at a tantalizing 999.7m. Once a proud Munro, it was stripped of its status in 1997 for being too 'clingy' to its neighbours. It remains a magnificent, rocky vantage point overlooking the Mamores' most dramatic ridges.

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Did You Know?

• •In 1997, the Scottish Mountaineering Club demoted this peak from Munro status to a Munro Top, judging it lacked enough independent prominence from its neighbours.
• •The name translates from Gaelic as 'Peak of the Yew,' though you’d be hard-pressed to find a single tree amidst the high-altitude quartzite and scree of the Mamores.
• •It sits at the western end of the infamous Devil’s Ridge, a narrow and airy scramble that connects it to the higher Sgùrr a’ Mhàim.
• •At 999.7 metres tall, it is a mere 30 centimetres short of the 1,000-metre mark, making it one of the most frustratingly close-but-no-cigar summits in Scotland.
• •Hiking here involves the unique psychological trauma of summiting a nearly 1,000m peak and then realizing you can't even tick it off your Munro list because some people with maps and very strict rules had a meeting in the nineties.