The Best Munros For Beginners
Updated April 2026
Welcome folks! This guide is for those of you who are just starting out on your Munro bagging journey and are looking for some of the best Munros to start with.
We’ll cover the essential things you’ll need to know before you tackle a Munro, and then walk through ten peaks that I think make excellent first outings — all of them ones I’ve actually hiked and written up in detail, so you can click through to a full route guide with parking, GPX, and an interactive map for any that catch your eye.
Munro bagging has become hugely popular over the last few years, with thousands of us heading out into the Scottish Highlands to explore the beauty the mountains have to offer. It comes with its own set of challenges, but with the right preparation and planning, it can be incredibly rewarding.
What is a Munro?
A Munro is a mountain in Scotland that is over 3,000ft (914.4m) in height. There are currently 282 Munros in Scotland and they are a popular challenge for hikers and climbers alike — the act of climbing as many as you can is called “Munro bagging”, and the people who set out to climb all 282 are called “Munro baggers” or “compleaters”.
For the full story of how the list came about, Sir Hugh Munro first compiled it in 1891, and the list has been tweaked a handful of times since as surveying has improved.
Why start with these Munros?
When you’re just starting out, it’s important to pick the right mountains. You want peaks that are relatively short, with good paths, manageable ascent, and minimal exposure. That will build both your confidence and your fitness, and give you a realistic idea of what to expect before you move on to something harder.
A quick honesty check before we go any further: no Munro is easy. Even the gentlest one on this list involves several hours of continuous uphill, sudden weather changes, and terrain that can turn from pleasant to serious in minutes. “Beginner-friendly” means the route finding, ascent, and exposure are manageable — it does not mean the mountain can’t hurt you if you turn up unprepared. Every Munro day needs proper footwear, waterproofs, layers, food, water, a map, and a plan for the weather.
With that said — let’s get into it.
What makes a Munro good for beginners?
There are a few things to think about when picking which Munro to start with:
- Distance. Some Munros have long approach walks before the climb even begins, which eats into your day and punishes you on the way back to the car. A beginner-friendly Munro typically has a total distance of around 10–15km.
- Ascent. The amount of ascent varies enormously. Some Munros have a gentle gradient all the way up; others have relentless steep sections that will leave your legs burning. Around 700–900m of ascent is a sensible first-day target. Looking at elevation profiles gives you a good feel for what’s ahead.
- Starting height. A quietly underrated factor. A Munro with a car park at 400m is a much shorter day than one starting at sea level — you can bag a 1,000m+ peak with a surprisingly modest effort.
- Exposure. Some Munros are much more exposed than others — narrow ridges, steep drops, scrambling sections. Exposure is daunting for beginner hikers, so stick to rounded or broad-ridged peaks until you know how you handle it.
- Navigation. Some Munros have clear, well-built paths the whole way up. Others require proper route-finding. Start with the former. You should still carry a map and know how to use it, but you don’t want to be learning map-reading for the first time in mist on a featureless plateau.
- Weather. Scottish mountain weather changes fast. Always check MWIS and the Met Office mountain forecast the night before and the morning of your hike. If the forecast looks genuinely bad, don’t go. The mountain will still be there next weekend.
A note on winter. Everything I’m about to recommend is for summer and shoulder-season conditions. In winter — roughly November to April, though it varies — every Munro on this list becomes a serious mountaineering objective requiring ice axe, crampons, and the skills to use them. Don’t attempt any of these as a beginner in winter conditions. Mountaineering Scotland has excellent guidance on winter skills courses if that’s where you want to go next.
Quick comparison
If you like to see things at a glance, here’s how the ten peaks in this guide compare:
| Munro | Height | Distance | Ascent | Region | Standout feature |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ben Lomond | 974m | ~12km | ~974m | Loch Lomond | The classic first Munro |
| Schiehallion | 1,083m | ~10km | ~731m | Loch Tay / Rannoch | Iconic cone, brilliant path |
| The Cairnwell | 933m | ~3km | ~280m | Glenshee | Shortest Munro day in Scotland |
| Càrn a’ Ghèoidh | 975m | ~11km | ~470m | Glenshee | High start, long gentle ridge |
| Ben Chonzie | 931m | ~13km | ~590m | Perthshire | Straightforward, boggy in places |
| Càrn na Caim | 941m | ~13km | ~570m | Drumochter | Gentle plateau, high start |
| A’ Bhuidheanach Bheag | 936m | ~14km | ~575m | Drumochter | Pair with Càrn na Caim |
| Meall Corranaich | 1,069m | ~11km | ~795m | Ben Lawers | High start, quiet pair |
| Ben Vorlich (Loch Earn) | 985m | ~9km | ~945m | Loch Earn | Close to Central Belt, clear path |
| Mayar & Driesh | 929m / 948m | ~15km | ~895m | Glen Clova | Pair with dramatic Corrie Fee |
The best Munros for beginners
1. Ben Lomond — 974m
Ben Lomond is the Munro most people climb first, and with good reason. It’s the most southerly Munro in Scotland, under an hour and a half from Glasgow, and the tourist path from Rowardennan is well-maintained from car park to summit. On a clear day the views down Loch Lomond are some of the best in the country.
A few honest caveats. The car park at Rowardennan fills up by 8am on any decent summer weekend — arrive early or park further out and walk in. The path is steady but relentless, with nearly a kilometre of vertical gain, so it’s not a short day. And because Ben Lomond is so popular, it can get busy in a way that some people find detracts from the experience. For a first Munro, though, it’s hard to beat.
2. Schiehallion — 1,083m
Schiehallion — the Fairy Hill of Caledonia — is one of the most recognisable mountains in Scotland. That near-perfect conical silhouette makes it look impossible to climb, but approach from the east and you’ll find a long gentle ridge with one of the best-maintained paths in the Highlands. The John Muir Trust spent around £800,000 restoring it.
The final 2km is a quartzite boulder field that catches people out after the smooth lower path — take your time here, especially on the descent. In clear weather it’s straightforward; in mist it’s the kind of terrain where a compass bearing matters. The mountain also has a genuinely fascinating history — the 1774 Maskelyne experiment to weigh the Earth was conducted here, and contour lines on maps were invented to chart Schiehallion’s shape. Every OS map you’ve ever used owes something to this hill.
3. The Cairnwell — 933m
Read the full route guide (Cairnwell 3 Munros) →
If you want the shortest possible route to a Munro summit in Scotland, this is it. The Cairnwell rises directly above the Glenshee Ski Centre, where the car park already sits at around 650m. A reasonably fit walker can be on the summit within an hour.
The scarring from the ski infrastructure is the catch — chairlifts, pylons, and access tracks mean it doesn’t feel particularly wild. But as a first Munro for someone who’s nervous about the distance, or as a half-day objective to see how you get on, it’s unbeatable. And it comes with an easy tick-and-a-half: Carn Aosda is just as short, and Carn a’ Ghèoidh (next on this list) is a natural extension.
4. Càrn a’ Ghèoidh — 975m
Read the full route guide (Cairnwell 3 Munros) →
Part of the same Glenshee group as The Cairnwell, Carn a’ Ghèoidh is a longer day but still modest by Munro standards — the high starting point means the total ascent is around 470m spread over gently rolling ridge ground. It’s a great second outing for anyone who did The Cairnwell and wondered what it would feel like to spend a full day on a Munro rather than an hour. Combine it with The Cairnwell and Carn Aosda and you can bag three Munros in a single day without the route being a slog.
5. Ben Chonzie — 931m
Ben Chonzie won’t win any awards for drama. It’s a heathery hump in the southern Highlands near Crieff — mainly moorland, gentle gradient, and a well-defined path most of the way. What it lacks in spectacle it makes up for in accessibility: it’s one of the closer Munros to Edinburgh and Stirling, the ascent is forgiving, and the views from the summit are genuinely good on a clear day.
The one thing to watch for is boggy ground after rain, and the summit plateau can be featureless in mist — there’s a line of old fence posts that help with navigation but it’s worth carrying a compass and knowing how to take a bearing just in case. Good rather than glamorous. Perfect second Munro territory.
6. Càrn na Caim — 941m
The Drumochter Munros often get dismissed as “boring” — they’re rounded plateaus rather than dramatic ridges, and they sit right above the A9 — but that’s exactly what makes Càrn na Caim one of the most sensible first Munros going. You start high (~450m), the gradient is kind, the navigation is straightforward in good weather, and the summit is a broad grassy plateau rather than anything exposed.
Pair it with A’ Bhuidheanach Bheag (below) on the same day and you can bag two Munros in a single outing with relatively little effort. The one caveat is that the featureless plateau at the top is genuinely hard to navigate in poor visibility — save this one for a clear day until you’ve got some compass work under your belt.
7. A’ Bhuidheanach Bheag — 936m
A’ Bhuidheanach Bheag is the southern partner to Càrn na Caim, and the two are almost always climbed as a pair — a long, gentle traverse of Drumochter’s eastern plateau with ~575m of ascent spread across the day. Same caveats as its neighbour: this is a clear-weather outing, because in cloud the summit plateau is a featureless ocean of grass and it’s very easy to drift off line. On a good day, though, it’s a peaceful, undramatic introduction to plateau walking and gives you two Munros for the effort of one moderate hillwalk.
8. Meall Corranaich & Meall a’ Choire Leith — 1,069m / 926m
If you want a taste of the high Breadalbane peaks without the crowds of the main Ben Lawers path, this pair is a quiet gem. You start from the high car park on the Lawers road (around 460m), which takes a chunk out of the ascent, and the route is a pleasant round of two Munros with panoramic views over Loch Tay and across Glen Lyon.
It’s a slightly more committing day than some others on this list — around 11km with nearly 800m of ascent — but the ground is good, the navigation is straightforward in decent weather, and it puts you on a proper high mountain without the queueing you’d get on Ben Lawers itself.
9. Ben Vorlich (Loch Earn) — 985m
Quick clarification: there are two Ben Vorlichs in Scotland, and it’s the one above Loch Earn that earns a place on this list — not the one at Loch Lomond, which is a different, steeper beast.
Ben Vorlich from Ardvorlich is the closest Munro to Edinburgh, has a clear path all the way up, and gives you a genuinely high mountain feel with panoramic views across Perthshire. The ascent is fairly direct so expect a steady climb, but there’s no scrambling and no exposed ground on this peak alone. My guide covers the full round including Stùc a’ Chroin — as a beginner, I’d strongly suggest you stop at Ben Vorlich’s summit and return the same way. Stùc a’ Chroin adds a steep, loose scramble that is not beginner terrain. One Munro today, come back for the second when you’ve got more days under your belt.
10. Mayar & Driesh — 929m / 948m
A cracking pair in the Angus Glens that gets you two Munros in a day through one of the most beautiful corries in Scotland — Corrie Fee, a U-shaped glacial amphitheatre with a waterfall tumbling down its back wall. You start from Glen Doll, wander up through pine forest into the corrie, and then pick up the Kilbo Path to climb out onto the plateau between the two Munros.
This is a bigger day than most of the others on this list — around 15km and nearly 900m of ascent — so save it for when you’ve got a couple of Munros behind you. It’s also one where the path up out of the corrie is steep enough to feel serious in bad weather, so pick your day. In summer, with a clear forecast, it’s one of the best introductions to a “proper” two-Munro round you’ll find.
Tools to help you plan your day
Before you head out, two tools on the site that might help:
- Naismith Calculator — estimates how long your hike will actually take based on distance and ascent. A lot of beginners under-estimate Munro days; this will give you a realistic number. Each route guide above links straight into the calculator with the numbers pre-filled.
- Wind Chill Calculator — Scottish summits are much colder than the car park, and wind makes it worse. This tells you what the temperature will actually feel like and flags frostbite risk so you can layer appropriately.
Gear checklist
Always take the right gear. Being caught out at the top of a Munro in jeans and a t-shirt when the weather turns is genuinely dangerous, not just uncomfortable.
I’ve put together an interactive Munro gear checklist you can tick through before you leave the house — find it here. At minimum you’ll want waterproof jacket and trousers, proper walking boots (not trainers), warm layers, hat and gloves (yes, even in summer), food, more water than you think you need, a map and compass, a head torch, and a fully charged phone.
A sensible progression
If you want a rough order to tackle these, here’s how I’d approach it if I were starting over:
- First outing: The Cairnwell — a short, honest Munro day to see how you get on with altitude and ascent.
- Second outing: Ben Chonzie or Ben Lomond — a full day on a well-pathed peak.
- Third outing: Schiehallion — to experience a proper conical mountain and some rougher terrain.
- Fourth outing: The Cairnwell / Carn a’ Ghèoidh round, or Càrn na Caim / A’ Bhuidheanach Bheag — your first multi-Munro day.
- Fifth outing: Meall Corranaich & Meall a’ Choire Leith, or Mayar & Driesh — a longer, more committing double.
Once you’ve got those under your belt, you’re well placed to start exploring further afield — the more dramatic Munros of Glencoe, the long days in the Lawers range, and eventually the ridges of Torridon and Skye. Plenty of time.
Extending your Munro bagging journey
Once you’ve tackled a handful of these, there are plenty of resources to help plan your next adventures. The Walk Highlands website has detailed route descriptions, user reports, and advice on every Munro in Scotland and is probably the single most useful resource out there. Mountaineering Scotland is essential reading for safety, winter skills, and training courses. And my own Munros section and interactive peaks page have first-hand route reports and an elevation-ordered list of all 282 you can work through.
Respect the mountains
Finally, a reminder to respect the mountains and the environment when you’re out. Leave no trace, take all your rubbish with you (including biodegradable stuff — banana skins take two years to break down), stay on paths where they exist, and follow the Scottish Outdoor Access Code. These hills are only as wild as we keep them.
Good luck out there. See you on a summit.
Last updated: April 2026. Conditions on Scottish mountains change constantly — always check current weather and avalanche forecasts before setting out. This guide is based on summer/shoulder-season conditions; winter ascents of these peaks require additional skills and equipment.
