A Caledonian MacBrayne ferry pulls away from a small stone pier with rugged island mountains rising across the water in the background

Regional library

Mull & the Small Isles Library

Explore the published routes of Mull and the Small Isles, with guides to eagles, volcanic landscapes, Scottish hill lists and mountain names.

20guides currently selected5library sections

Hiking Route Guides

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4 guides

Route Guide1 GPX download

Dùn da Ghaoithe from Upper Achnacroish: Mull Route Guide

Follow the Achnacroish mast track and pathless grassy ridge to climb Dùn da Ghaoithe, Mull’s only Corbett.

23 Aug 2026Read Guide
Route Guide1 GPX download

Hallival via Kinloch and Coire Dubh

A demanding out-and-back from Kinloch ferry pier through Coire Dubh to the rocky Corbett summit of Hallival.

19 Aug 2026Read Guide
Route Guide1 GPX download

Askival via Hallival from Kinloch: Rum Route Guide

Take on Rum’s highest peak by the classic Kinloch and Hallival approach—a demanding mountain route with exposed scrambling, island views and serious terrain.

10 Aug 2026Read Guide
Route Guide1 GPX download

An Sgùrr from Galmisdale: Eigg Route Guide

Climb Eigg’s unmistakable pitchstone summit from Galmisdale on this 9.7 km out-and-back route, combining a boggy moorland approach, a short rocky scramble and huge Small Isles views.

09 Aug 2026Read Guide

Hill Lists and People

Guide

The Dodds: When Three Regional Lists Became One Metric Classification

Between 500 and 600 metres sits a collection of hills that used to be split across Deweys, Donald Deweys and Highland Fives—until the idea emerged in 2014 to unify them under a single name that works across Britain.

02 Nov 2026Read
Guide

Simms: the hill category that tidied up the lists

If you've ever wondered why British hill lists seem unnecessarily complicated, Simms offer a rare moment of clarity. Introduced by Alan Dawson in 2010, a Simm is any summit over 600 metres with at least 30 metres of drop all round – a definition that consolidated several older, overlapping lists like Murdos, Corbett Tops, Graham Tops and Hewitts into something more coherent.

28 Sept 2026Read
Guide

Hamish Brown: The Man Who Walked the Munros in One Go

In 1974, Hamish Brown became the first person to complete all the Munros in a single continuous journey, taking 112 days and resupplying by buried food caches. He then spent decades writing about Scottish hills, bothies, and why walking beats almost everything else.

28 Sept 2026Read
Guide

Marilyns: Why a 150-Metre Drop is the Real Test of a Hill

Think altitude is everything? See why a 150-metre drop identifies Britain’s 1,550 Marilyns, and how the list changed in 2025.

24 Aug 2026Read
Guide

The HuMPs: The Geography of Independence

Forget the highest peaks and look at the hills that stand on their own—this is the fascinating, mathematical world of the HuMPs.

24 Aug 2026Read
Guide

The Corbetts: Scotland’s 500-Foot Hill Climbing Obsession

While the Munros get the headlines, the 222 Corbetts offer a quieter route into the Scottish hills, each meeting a clear height and 500ft drop rule.

24 Aug 2026Read
Guide

The Munros: Scotland’s 3,000ft Standard

Everything you need to know about the 282 Munros—Scotland’s iconic list of 3,000ft peaks defined by strict height requirements and a century of hill-walking tradition.

20 Jul 2026Read

Wildlife and Working Landscapes

2 guides

Guide

How to Tell If That Large Bird Is Actually an Eagle

The silhouette overhead is wrong somehow. Here's what you're actually looking at, where to find golden eagles in Britain, and why it's worth getting the identification right.

28 Oct 2026Read
Guide

When midges attack: the case for repellent and a head net

If you've ever been swarmed by midges in the Scottish Highlands and wondered whether insect repellent or a head net might actually be worth the bother, here's a practical look at what works, what doesn't, and why sometimes looking slightly ridiculous is preferable to being eaten alive.

15 Oct 2026Read

Landscape and Place Names

Guide

Why Scotland's Mountains Are Full of Mòrs and Beags

Once you know that "mòr" means big and "beag" means small in Scottish Gaelic, you'll spot this wonderfully pragmatic naming system all over Highland maps—because when you've got two similar lumps of rock next to each other, calling one the big version and one the wee version does the job without requiring ancient warrior legends or any particular imagination.

24 Oct 2026Read
Guide

Why Scottish mountains are called sgòr, sgùrr and stob

Ever wondered why Scottish mountains are called sgòr, sgùrr and stob? They're not random—they're Gaelic descriptions of what the peak actually looks like from below.

07 Oct 2026Read
Guide

What Volcanoes Left Behind in Britain

Extinct volcanoes left lava flows, ash deposits, intrusions and collapsed calderas across parts of Britain. Their resistant volcanic rocks now form familiar crags, ridges and mountain landscapes.

08 Sept 2026Read
Guide

The Language of Water

A guide to the Norse and regional water terms found across the British uplands—and what they can, and cannot, tell you about the terrain.

16 Jul 2026Read
Guide

The Great British Hill Naming Crisis

Ever wondered why the same hill names keep appearing on British maps? The answer lies in useful local descriptions that were never designed to be nationally unique.

16 Jul 2026Read
Guide

Is it a hill, is it a fell, is it a mountain?

The UK’s names for high places—hills, fells, mountains and tors—reflect language and local custom, while the familiar 2,000-foot line is a hill-list convention rather than an official OS rule.

15 Jul 2026Read

Access and Mountain Safety

1 guide

Guide

The Wild Camping Grey Area: Where You Can, Where You Can't, and Why Scotland's Different

Britain's wild camping laws are a proper muddle: you generally need permission in England and Wales, Dartmoor's commons offer a genuine legal right to pitch, and Scotland grants access across most land under its own statute. The confusion comes from assuming that permission to walk somewhere includes permission to sleep there, which it usually doesn't, and the legal ground shifts beneath your boots without so much as a signpost to warn you.

16 Aug 2026Read

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