rucksack hardbacks

As a brief follow-up to the earlier Munro-related stuff, if you are at all interested in bagging a few and not dying in the attempt then it behooves you, in addition to kitting yourself out with some proper walking gear, to do a bit of up-front research about where you're going. This should include getting hold of the relevant 1:25000 Ordnance Survey maps, but it's probably also useful to get some general reference material. Here's a couple of recommendations, both of which I own:

• Cameron McNeish's The Munros: Scotland's Highest Mountains. This is simultaneously a nice coffee-table book and also a source of nicely-summarised route information for each peak, as well as some recommendations on which ones you can string together into a day out. My advice is to photocopy the relevant pages before you go and take them with you , rather than try and shoehorn a glossy coffee-table book into a rucksack.
• Irvine Butterfield's The Magic Of The Munros. This is unashamedly just a coffee-table book with some great pictures in it, and none the worse for that.

Both of those are under nine quid on Amazon, which is pretty good. The Scottish Mountaineering Club's Hillwalker's Guide (which Jim brought with him) is worth a look too, though a bit more expensive. For more general Scottish walking stuff, not necessarily Munro-focussed, try McNeish's Scotland's 100 Best Walks, or possibly Wainwright In Scotland.