Smc.org.uk
Title
The Scottish Mountaineering Club
Description
The Scottish Mountaineering Club was formed in 1889 as a result of correspondence in the Glasgow Herald initiated by William W. Naismith. Although other Scottish clubs existed at this time, such as the Cairngorm Club, these had only local membership and limited technical aspirations. In the period up to the Great War the SMC thoroughly explored and described our mountains and crags, recounting their exploits in the SMC Journal, which has remained in continuous publication from 1890 to the present.
Go here for the beginnings of a gallery of old SMC dinner menus; they provide a tantalising glimpse into the early days of the club - when men were men, ladies were regrettably scarce, and dinners were waistcoat-busting affairs!
Apart from Naismith himself, some prominent members of this early period were Hugh T. Munro, who described and classified the mountains; William Douglas, who edited Volumes 2-10 of the Journal; Norman Collie, John Bell and Harold Raeburn, who explored many important crags and corries. Under Douglas's editorship, the information collected by Munro and others was published in a Guidebook section of the Journal as soon as it became available. Later, thanks to a grant from the disbanded Gaiter Club (an exotic association of aristocrats and political leaders), these sections were published separately as Guides to the various mountain areas.
