My interest in Marilyns began... by growing up on the side of the Malvern Hills. I roamed them all through my childhood and teenage years. I still find them beautiful hills. A more particular love of the Scottish Highlands was added on a hitchhiking holiday around youth hostels at the age of 18. The first sight of Buachaille Etive Mor made an impression I have never forgotten. I moved to Scotland in 1973 and have virtually stayed here ever since.
Although, at first, I was resistant to becoming a list-ticking bagger I soon started to collect Munros. The Corbetts were a natural next step and then in 1995 I found the Grahams TACit Tables. In March 1997, I spotted the RHB book by chance in an Edinburgh bookshop, and the first consciously sought sub-2000ft Marilyns appear in my hill list in April 1997.
I'm interested in the wildlife, the geology, the history and the scenery you see when you go hillwalking. Being on your own heightens your sense of all these things and just the feeling of being in the hills. There is so much more chance of getting this experience on the lower hills and I love finding your own way around hills which lack the obvious paths of the more popular Munros and Corbetts. You tend to see a lot more wildlife, too. My eagle count on the lower hills is very much higher than on the Munros.
An Teallach (photo: David McSporran)
My favourite Marilyns are... verging on impossible to decide. An Teallach probably takes the number one spot for me, because of its beautiful rock architecture, the combination of walking and exciting scrambling it offers, the wonderful views both of and from it and that north-west Highland quality of a fine, distinct, rugged hill surrounded by sea and lochs. I was up it one day of temperature inversion, with the tops of the whole of the north of Scotland sticking out of a sea of cloud in bright sunshine. I do not think I will ever forget it. Having said this, Liathach, Beinn Alligin, Stac Pollaidh and Suilven are all almost equally magnificent in their own ways. So I think I will just settle for a top five.
My least favourite Marilyn is... hard to say as no Marilyn is without any merit, I would argue - along with most other Marhofn members, I imagine. But some are definitely more rewarding than others. Hills where the actual top is not obvious and has to be hunted for amongst awkward forestry are pretty low down my list of preferences. Drumcroy Hill and Drummond Hill gave me two of my least memorable days, I think. Amongst Munros which are Marilyns, I think Carn na Caim must have the least interesting summit of all. Deciding where the actual highest point is, I found almost impossible.
Do I keep Marilyn bagging a secret? Not at all, but I do think only a small proportion of people I know are really likely to be interested. So I do talk about it on a pretty selective basis, for this reason.
I... have two children aged 31 and 29, who having shown no warning signs, both got engaged within ten days of each other over this Christmas and new year. From having no weddings on the horizon, we now have two to arrange within 18 months.
