Munro vs Corbett vs Graham vs Donald: What's the Difference?

Spend any time on the Scottish hills and you will hear the words Munro, Corbett, Graham and Donald used as if everyone already knows what they mean. They are the four classic lists of Scottish mountains and hills, each defined by height and by how far a summit rises above the ground around it. The differences are simpler than they sound — here is the whole picture in one place.

The four lists at a glance

Munros: the famous 3,000-footers

A Munro is a Scottish mountain over 3,000 feet — 914.4 metres — high. There are 282 of them, from Ben Nevis (1,345 m, the highest point in Britain) down to the modest plateau of Beinn Teallach, which scrapes in at 915 m. The list takes its name from Sir Hugh Munro, who published the first Tables of these hills in 1891.

Crucially, a Munro does not need a fixed drop to count. Sir Hugh judged which 3,000-foot summits were "separate mountains" and which were merely subsidiary bumps — and that judgement, refined by the Scottish Mountaineering Club ever since, is why the list contains a slightly awkward 282 rather than a tidy number. The subsidiary summits that did not make the cut became the 226 Munro Tops: over 3,000 ft, but not deemed mountains in their own right. Climbing all 282 is "compleating" a round; the people who do are Munroists.

Corbetts: the 2,500-footers with a clean drop

Below the Munros come the 222 Corbetts: hills between 2,500 and 3,000 feet. Where the Munro list relies on judgement, the Corbett rule is strict and mathematical — a Corbett must rise at least 500 feet (152.4 m) above the highest pass connecting it to any neighbour. That prominence rule means every Corbett feels like a properly separate hill, and many of them — Suilven, Ben Loyal, Arkle — are far more dramatic than the rounded Munros nearby. They are named after John Rooke Corbett, a Bristol surveyor who became one of the first people to climb all the 2,500-foot Scottish hills.

Grahams: the 2,000-footers (now sometimes "Fionas")

The 231 Grahams are Scottish hills between 2,000 and 2,500 feet (roughly 610–762 m) with a drop of at least 150 metres all round. They are named in memory of Fiona Torbet (née Graham), who compiled the list before her death in 1993. In 2024 the Scottish Mountaineering Club formally renamed them Fionas in her honour, though most walkers still say "Grahams" and you will see both names for years to come. Smaller they may be, but Grahams reach into quiet corners of the country the busier lists miss entirely.

Donalds: the Lowland hills

The Donalds are the odd ones out. Rather than covering all of Scotland, they are the hills over 2,000 feet in the Scottish Lowlands — chiefly the Southern Uplands around the Borders, Galloway and the Ochils. There are 89 of them (around 140 if you include the subsidiary Donald Tops), defined by a characteristically intricate formula devised by Percy Donald that weighs both drop and "sufficient topographical interest". For walkers in the south of Scotland, the Donalds are the local equivalent of a Munro round.

So which should you climb?

Most people start with the Munros — they are the highest, the best documented, and the most sociable goal. But the lists are not a ladder you climb in order. Plenty of seasoned baggers turn to the Corbetts and Grahams precisely because they are quieter, and a poor forecast on the high tops is often the perfect day for a shapely Graham with the hill to yourself. If you want to see how the big list breaks down before you choose a target, our guide to all 282 Munros sorts them by region, height and difficulty, and the free interactive map shows where they cluster.

Whichever list you chase, it helps to keep an honest record of what you have done. The Munros app tracks your progress through all 282 Munros — your totals, your regional breakdown and the peaks still to go update automatically every time you log a summit. Start with a single hill, tick it off, and the round takes care of counting itself.