Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal Volume 4 Number 3

Mountaineering literature

The "Contour" Road Book Of Scotland, by Harry R. G. Inglis

With 500 diagrams and maps

Edinburgh: Gall & Inglis

THE idea of this useful little book is to present the cyclist with sections of all the principal Scottish roads, showing in contour lines all the inequalities of elevation that are to be met with, and their relative situation. With more truth than usually attends self-made claims, the author describes the book as "an entirely new departure in mapping"; for, though many have been the "aids" to cyclists, this is the first that recognises the all-importance of the hill and the advantage of accurate information regarding it. We have tested the diagrams by roads that we happened to know, and can speak to their general accuracy and clearness. Appended to the diagrams is a descriptive letterpress, with information regarding mileage, inns, surface, places of interest, and giving the exact figures of the various gradients. We note that the Glencoe road, which mountaineers have frequently to traverse en route to Clachaig and Bidean nam Bian, is regarded as the cyclist's bête noir, and that the road from Struan to Dalwhinnie is a good second in badness. Seeing, however, that the Larig Pass is mentioned as an Appendix route, we should have thought that the cyclist's odium would have been reserved for more unridable roads than the one in question. Glencoe is not so very dreadful. Compared with the moor road from Linn of Dee to Derry Lodge, where we once imperilled a bran-new "Premier," it is as asphalt unto a ploughed field.

In the western section are some wonderful diagrams, where strict accuracy of gradient can only be obtained by a series of Matterhorn-like contours which will remind the mountaineering cyclist of a Coolin ridge. The ride from Tornapress to Applecross (12 miles, summit level 2,000 feet) lies over a beautiful representation of Schiehallion, and Inverness to Fort Augustus shows a scarcely less mountainous profile. The connection of two noble sports, which have already been linked together in the Journal, is thus completely established.