Book Review - The Mountains are Calling: Running in the High Places of Scotland by Jonny Muir; read 1 November 2018

The Mountains are Calling: Running in the High Places of Scotland by Jonny Muir; read 1 November 2018

The front cover of this book includes Alastair Humphrey’s comment from his review ‘A paean of praise for the mountains and the runners who go there.’ and this is a great description of this book. Although the topic of the book is unashamedly Hill Running (not Fell Running – that’s for the Lake District) in Scotland it is not a book solely for runners. Anyone with an interest in the mountains of Scotland will enjoy this book. Its central theme, though not sole topic, is Ramsay’s round, a run over 24 Munros in under 24 hours. Its climax is the author’s own completion of the round in 2017 when he became the 101st person to complete it.

The book introduces the Ramsay’s Round early on and always comes back to it but follows different Mountain rounds, Tranter and Bob Graham for example, and the people who run them. It talks about the Cuillin traverse on Skye and introduces short local and training runs and the amateur and understated culture of the Hill running scene. Some of the heroes of the sport – such as Angela Mudge – one of Britain’s former world champions of whom you are unlikely to heard of unless you have read this book are already involved in the scene. Vet Jasmin Paris the former record holder of the Ramsay Round (holding the Male and Female record at the time) and her husband whose training is to just go running. Alex Brett the story of whose death on Liathach is told with sympathy and many others are here.

Stories of some of the record breaking Ramsay rounds as well as the author’s own round in the penultimate chapter are inspiring. Tales of the winter Ramsays rounds (usually taking more than 24hours) usually held in appalling weather and mostly in the dark with minimal equipment make one realise just what tough Hombres these athletes are.

The final chapter asks several questions about the future of the sport. Is it becoming to commercialised and are commercially run races a threat to the ethos of the sport? The perennial question is also asked, though not answered, on where the next generation of Hill runners shall come from. These questions are left hanging for the reader to make his or her own conclusion though the author is upbeat. Throughout the language is sublime and the book is an inspiration – I will look to walk the Ramsay round over a few days next year as a result of reading this book.

For more on Jonny's adventures go here https://heightsofmadness.com/

Addendum

Jasmin Paris has since gone on to achieve the record (male and female for the Montane Run along the Pennine way - theguardian.com - Jasmin Paris becomes first woman to win 268-mile Montane Spine Race | Sport | The Guardian