Grahams

Beinn Bhreac summit and Loch Lomond
Summit of Beinn Bhreac, a 681m Graham near Loch Lomond  

A Graham is a hill in Scotland between 600 and 762 metres high that has a drop (relative height) of 150 metres or more on all sides. The hills now known as Grahams were first listed by Alan Dawson in The Relative Hills of Britain, published by Cicerone Press in April 1992. This book listed all the Marilyns. All Grahams are by definition Marilyns. At this stage the Grahams were referred to as Elsies. The Grahams are now named after Fiona Torbet (1931-1993), who compiled her own list of 244 hills in the Scottish Highlands, published by The Great Outdoors (TGO) magazine in November 1992. Fiona Torbet's maiden name was Graham, and her initial list of 244 hills was called the Grahams.

After the list in TGO was published, Alan Dawson and Fiona Torbet got together to discuss the matter. They agreed that it would be unhelpful and confusing for hillwalkers to have two lists with similar scope. After some debate and reflection, their agreement was to use Alan Dawson's list from The Relative Hills of Britain, with some minor revisions, and to use the name Grahams for that list. After Fiona Torbet's death in July 1993, Alan Dawson continued to use the name Grahams for his list, to honour the verbal agreement made with Fiona Torbet.

The final change to the set of Grahams in 2022 was the inclusion of twelve hills from 600 to 609.6 metres high. This simplified the metric height limits and enhanced the list by adding several rugged and interesting summits.

More information about the Grahams is available in these sources: