Much Ado About 9.6 Metres
In theory, it should have been a cause for celebration. Publication of the most accurate hill list ever, one that will never change, because 99% of summits and all the critical cols have been surveyed using satellite technology, with heights accurate to ten centimetres. And a book (Tales from the Grahams) with a variety of entertaining stories from several writers, each with its own theme, plus lots of pictures, historical background and all that you never wanted to know about Grahams.
In practice, it caused consternation and condemnation, because I had the temerity to make a small change to the criteria, with nine new Grahams, plus three reinstatements, taking the total to 231, a 5% increase. "You have no right" came a voice from the crowd. "Fiona Torbet would be turning in her grave" shouted another, then "you are disrespecting Grahamists". "Hecla", I responded. I didn't hear "off with his head" because I stopped looking at social media.
I did not make the change lightly, to stir things up or cause a reaction, I made it because I believed it made sense for several reasons - numeric, topographic, aesthetic, historic and strategic.
Firstly, it removed the anomaly of combining imperial and metric units. Grahams were hills from 2000 to 2500 feet with a drop of 150 metres or more. Bonkers. Changing the drop required from 150 metres to 500 feet would fit with the Corbetts and eliminate five hills, leaving 214 Grahams. Changing the lower boundary to 600m would fit with the Simms and retain the Marilyn drop criterion. The choice was obvious. I preferred to make the Grahams consistent with my other lists, Simms and Marilyns, rather than someone else's.
The topographic reason became evident when surveying the marginal hills of Argyll. There are six between 600m and 620m: Beinn Bheag (Frog chorus), Cruach nam Capull (Paler shades of grey), Cruach nam Mult (Coire No), Cruach Neuran (Pussycat gorge), Cruach nam Miseag (Nut of knobbles) and Sgorach Mor (Bridget Jones moments). Words in brackets are titles of the relevant tales in the book. Once I had removed the blinkers, it was obvious that these hills were very similar in character and that 600m was a superior cut-off point. Below 600m there are no similar hills in the area. A boundary at 609.6m made no sense numerically or topographically.
The historical reason was almost as compelling. Three hills had been Grahams from 1993 until 2014, when my surveys found they were only 609m high. Ben Aslak (Reclassification), Corwharn (Marginal magic) and Ladylea Hill (Lay lady lay) all fell short by 50-60cm. How satisfying it would be to see these hills promoted, like welcoming original members Aston Villa, Nottingham Forest and Sheffield United back to the English Premier League. Maybe Everton too one day. The Premier League was launched in 1992, a few weeks after the Marilyns were published, including the subset now known as Grahams. None of the hills under 600m were clamouring for promotion. Greatmoor Hill was 599m but had a tiny fanbase and was considering defection to England. The Coyles of Muick had good local support but was nothing compared to Uist and fell short by 80cm.
The aesthetic reason was obvious once I paid attention to the other 600m summits. Hecla (Prominent torment) on South Uist is part of a fine natural circuit with Beinn Mhor (Isolation) and Beinn Choradail. Sithean Mor (Unfamiliar friends) has a wonderful, rocky summit ridge with fabulous views toward Eigg, Rum and Skye. Beinn a' Chuirn (The price of freedom) has its own peninsula with tremendous views all round. Lowly 601m Leagag (Eviction and conviction) is a shapely sentinel dominating the western end of Loch Rannoch. Four superb hills within easy reach from a public road. All four can offer the wildness, ruggedness and loneliness of many other Grahams, qualities rare below 600m on the mainland. What a rigid philistine I would be to exclude them with an ancient imperial boundary when I could admit them by going more metric. This was not just numerically neater, it enhanced the quality of the set of hills.
The change meant including two other hills with less obvious subjective appeal - 606.1m Well Hill and 606.6m Burach. Fine, that's the way the biscuit breaks. Well Hill (Well hidden walklet) offers a short, easy walk that can be extended to provide a scenic and satisfying approach to Green Lowther (Grey expectations), via steep-sided Steygail. Burach (Hill of two halves) can be tough going in places, but it has good parking and a pleasant woodland path to get started before tackling the tussocks.
And finally, the strategic reason. Apart from the USA, almost all countries now use metric measurements. The UK switched to decimal currency in 1971, shortly before Ordnance Survey abandoned one-inch maps and adopted the 1:50000 scale, with metric contours and heights. The 1974 edition of Munro's Tables gave heights in metres as well as feet, then the 1981 edition omitted feet and went fully metric. The UK government, OS and SMC rarely receive credit for these bold, strategic moves, but few people now think they were misguided.
Which brings us to 1997, when the SMC included Grahams in the book of Munro's Tables and Other Tables of Lower Hills. The list was correct and fully acknowledged. Problems began with the guidebook The Grahams and the Donalds in 2015, when the SMC took editorial control and made several changes to the list of Grahams (all wrong). Naturally I was not amused. My response was to be patient, survey the lot and then publish the final, definitive list. In 2016 I registered Grahams as a trademark to try to stop this happening again (to prevent misrepresentation, not publication). I did not think of changing the height boundary until 2021, when it made so much sense I wondered why it had taken me so long.
Compiling an accurate hill list and maintaining it for thirty years has taken me thousands of hours of diligent research. Surveying the hills has taken thousands more. No-one else has done this. I felt fully entitled to adjust the definition. If it reminded some walkers that the list of Grahams was the outcome of my work, not the SMC or Fiona Torbet or anyone else, perhaps that would not be a bad thing.
I found out in the summer of 2022 that a second edition of the SMC guidebook was imminent. I got in touch to advise the SMC about forthcoming changes to the Grahams, without giving details, but there was no constructive response until the book had already been printed, when a representative of the publisher (Scottish Mountaineering Press) stepped in to resolve matters. After a stressful month of discussion and negotiation, we were able to reach an agreement. It was all rather rushed. The SMC book was distributed with a brief insert sheet summarising the changes and a free download with route descriptions for the extra Grahams. Not ideal, but better than a legal dispute.
With hindsight, I could have handled the announcement better and been more assertive. The change caused a fuss and I received plenty of abuse. Publicity and promotion have never been my strengths. Many of the people who might have bought my book hated me and bought the SMC book instead. So it goes. It seemed crazy to have two books on the Grahams published at the same time, so I made it crazier by adding a third: Ten Tables of Grahams: The Official List. This booklet is for those who simply want the data without the stories or the background information, rather like the Marilyns in 1992.
The Grahams began as a small subset of the Marilyns. They still are. In that respect, nothing has changed.