I have continued my campaign to be the least acquisitive HoF member of those actually still alive and can surely claim that nobody else has managed a summit bivvy on 40% of the year's Marilyns (AD: Peter Wilson had the title of 'slowest mover' until he blew it last year by adding 22).
Hownam Law in June was inconvenient because of having to wake up at 3am to capture the stunning sunrise - pink Eildons swimming in mauve mist - after having stayed up until 11pm the evening before to photograph the sunset.
Howman Law (photo: Ronald Turnbull)
Meall Mor, the big hump above the Glen Coe visitor centre, could be the most weirdly motivated Marilyn. It was to establish for Trail magazine that the Hogwarts background in 'Pensioner of Aberdeen' (CW: Prisoner of Azkaban to the rest of us) is not a computer graphic but a real hill.
The December sleep-out on Stob na Cruaiche on Rannoch Moor, under a hard frost punctuated by shooting stars, was an appropriately memorable choice as my 500th Scottish Marilyn. Well, it would have been if I had been aware of this momentous event before I totted them up just before writing this.
View from Stob na Cruaiche (photo: Ronald Turnbull)
