Some notes
Distinctively marked Stones.
At the start of this project, my ambition was to place a varnished Stone at the summit of each of the mountains and hills on my List, but it soon became obvious that these were not going to last very long, either because people were going to remove them or the varnish was not good enough to withstand the severe weather conditions involved. I have continued to place such Stones, but my revised scheme is now to place a second, more insignificant and unvarnished, Stone with just a white dot visible on it - hopefully invisible to tourist souvenir hunters and unobtrusive enough not to offend the aesthetic sensibilities of other walkers. I do appreciate that it would not do if everyone decided that they wanted to leave painted rocks strewn around the countryside. So - for those of you who are playing A Game Of Stones, however you are doing so, the proof of location will now be hidden on the reverse of the second, more subtly marked Stone, designated by a code which can be checked against the List on another page on this website - look for the white dot (not necessarily beside the yellow-band Stone). Hopefully, if the more obvious yellow-band Stones DO disappear, the white-dot ones will still be left in place.The illustrations attached are of the Stone on Colsnaur Hill, which was originally the 6th one placed.
Please make sure that you have replaced the Stone carefully once you have checked the information on it.
'It should be noted that the Stone may not be on the actual summit.
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1. Names: These have been taken where possible from Harveys / OS maps. If there is no name on the maps which I have researched, I have given the point in question a name - hopefully self explanatory! Some points over 400m high may not be labeled on Harveys / OS maps, often because they do not have sufficient prominence.
A yellow-band Stone
2. "Simple" Prominence or minimum ascent/descent: I calculate that there are 76 mountains and hills over 400 metres above sea level in the Ochils with a "simple" prominence of at least 15m.
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3. The Ochil Mountains: In Scotland, as in many other parts of the world, a recent trend in the metric definition of a mountain, which I am adopting, is "a hill over 600 metres above sea level". By this measure, my calculation is that there are 12 mountains in the Ochils range; all bar three of these mountains (Ben Buck, Cairnmorris and Skythorn) appear in the Donalds* list.
Fig. 1
Height and prominence: for inclusion in my Ochils 400+ List, a summit must be at least 400m above sea level and require at least 15m of ascent from all directions to reach it - a rise with less than 15m of re-ascent is simply a continuation of the slope of the summit.
That's my understanding - "the notion of prominence is not easy to grasp"- and I reserve the right to have not got it absolutely technically correct!
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The *Donalds are the summits in Lowland Scotland that exceed 2000 feet (610m) in height, with a particular prominence. The Donalds list has both Donalds (which are the main individual summits) and Donald Tops, which are the minor summits not regarded as separate Donalds. The Ochils Donald summits are: Ben Cleuch, Blairdennon, Innerdownie, Kings Seat and Tarmangie. Donald Tops are Andrew Gannel Hill, Ben Ever, The Law and Whitewisp; Cairnmorris is designated a subDonald. In the Ochils 400+ List, all these Donalds are considered to be mountains, as are Ben Buck and Skythorn Hill (over 600m).
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A Marilyn is a mountain or hill in Scotland, England, Wales, Ireland or the Isle of Man with a prominence of at least 150m (492 ft), regardless of absolute height or other merit; there are five Marilyns in the Ochil Hills, all of them over 400m high, and so featuring in agos400. They are Ben Cleuch, Dumyat, Innerdouny, Lendrick Hill and Steele's Knowe.