Hamish BrownM.B.E.FRSGS is a professional writer, lecturer and photographer specialising in mountain and outdoor topics. He is best known for his walking exploits in theScottish Highlands, having completed multiple rounds of theMunros and being the first person to walk all the Munros in a single trip with only ferries and a bicycle as means of transport.

Born inColombo,Ceylon (now modern-daySri Lanka) on 13 August 1934, he lived inJapan for a time and thenSingapore; escaping in 1942 as it fell to the Japanese. He lived inSouth Africa for two years as a refugee before returning to live in Scotland at the end of World War II. His family lived inDollar and Brown spent much of his youth exploring the nearbyOchil Hills which awakened his interest in the great outdoors. He was educated atDollar Academy.

He travelled extensively in the Middle East and East Africa during the 1950s when serving in theRAF for hisNational Service. Between 1960 and 1972 he worked at Braehead School,Buckhaven,Fife and was in charge of outdoor activities at the school, introducing many of the pupils to walking in the Scottish Highlands as well as other outdoor activities.^[1] After a spell as a County Adviser, he decided to try to make a living as a freelance writer and photographer, specialising on "anything to do with mountains".^[2]

On 4 April 1974, Brown set off on his trip to complete all the Munro mountains in one trip. He completed the journey on 24 July; a journey of 112 days during which time he covered 1,639 miles, climbed 289 peaks and wore out three pairs of boots. He only used theIsle of Mull andIsle of Skye ferries and a bicycle as transport.

Brown's 1974 journey was documented in the bookHamish’s Mountain Walk, the book won an award from the Scottish Arts Council. He followed his Munros walk with the longest trip over the English, Irish and Welsh peaks, told in the bookHamish’s Groats End Walk. Brown also thought up the Ultimate Challenge (now called the TGO Challenge, afterThe Great Outdoors Magazine, not to be confused with the Australian series, which sponsors and organises the event), a fortnight-long endurance walk from coast-to-coast across Scotland – the bookScotland Coast To Coast is an account of a typical Challenge walk.Great Walking Adventure covered some of his more distant treks to Corsica, Norway, the Andes, Atlas and Himalayas.

He has continued to write books and contribute to outdoor magazines. He has written or edited over forty books and written numerous articles, many of which have appeared in The Scotsman and the Evening News and a selection of these were published in the bookTravels. He has also edited two poetry books:Poems of the Scottish Hills and the hugeSpeak to the Hills besides a volume of his own poemsTime Gentlemen. Two of Brown's best known books about the Scottish Highlands,Hamish's Mountain Walk andClimbing The Corbetts were released as a compendium in 1996 by the publishers Baton Wicks.

In 1997, Brown received an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from theUniversity of St Andrews for his contribution to mountain writing and poetry. In 2000, he was made an MBE and a fellow of theRoyal Scottish Geographical Society. In May 2007, he was awarded anhonorary degree from theOpen University as Doctor of the University.^{[citation needed]}

Brown did a lot of his walking with his petShetland Sheepdogs, firstly Kitchy and then Storm. Both climbed hundreds of mountains in his company, including completed rounds ofMunros, the former dog credited as the first to achieve this feat.^[3]

For many years Brown lived inKinghorn inFife and now lives inBurntisland. He spends several months every year inMorocco, a country very close to his heart; having first visited there in 1965 and has returned annually ever since to walk in theAtlas Mountains. In 2006, he released the bookThe Mountains Look on Marrakech an account of a 90-day end to end trek of the Atlas Mountains. In 2008, Brown took a break from writing books on walking when he releasedThe Scottish Graveyard Miscellany, a book about the design and art of gravestones throughout Scotland.

• Hamish’s Mountain Walk, Paladin, 1978,ISBN 0-586-08332-4
• Hamish’s Groats End Walk, Paladin, 1981,ISBN 0-586-08426-6
• Eye to the Hills: Poems, Pettycur Publishing, 1982,ISBN 0-9508089-0-3 (With James McMillan)
• Poems of the Scottish Hills, Elsevier, 1982,ISBN 0-08-028477-9
• Time Gentlemen (Some Collected Poems),Mercat Press, 1983,ISBN 0-08-030375-7
• Five Bird Stories, Pettycur Publishing, 1984,ISBN 0-9508089-1-1
• Speak to the Hills, Anthology of 20th Century British and Irish Mountain Poetry, Aberdeen University, 1985,ISBN 0-08-030406-0 (Edited with Martyn Berry)
• The Great Walking Adventure, Oxford Illustrated Press, 1986,ISBN 0-946609-12-8
• Travels, Scotman Publications, 1986,ISBN 0-902670-03-4
• The Island of Rhum, A Guide for Walkers, Climbers and Visitors, Cicerone Press, 1988,ISBN 1-85284-002-1
• Climbing The Corbetts, Victor Gollancz, 1988,ISBN 0-575-04378-4
• Hamish Brown’s Scotland, Mercat Press, 1988,ISBN 0-08-036391-1
• Scotland Coast To Coast, Patrick Stephens, 1990,ISBN 1-85260-229-5
• Walking The Summits of Somerset and Avon, Pat, 1991,ISBN 1-85260-365-8
• Fort William And Glen Coe Walks, Jarrold Publishing, 1992,ISBN 0-7117-0571-2
• Great Walks: Scotland, New Orchard, 1992,ISBN 1-872226-56-6 (With Rennie McOwan, and Richard Mearns)
• From The Pennines to the Highlands, House of Lochar, 1992,ISBN 1-874027-37-4
• The Bothy Brew, Luath Press, 1993,ISBN 0-946487-26-X
• The Last Hundred, Munros, Beards and a Dog, Mainstream Publishing, 1994,ISBN 1-85158-607-5
• The Fife Coast, Mainstream Publishing, 1994,ISBN 1-85158-608-3
• Exploring The Edinburgh To Glasgow Canals, Stationery Office, 1997,ISBN 0-11-495735-5
• Fife in Focus (Coastal Photographs), 1997,ISBN 1-869984-08-0
• 25 Walks: Skye and Kintail, Mercat Press, 2000,ISBN 1-84183-007-0
• Along The Fife Coastal Path, Mercat Press, 2004,ISBN 1-84183-057-7
• Fife: 25 Walks, Mercat Press, 2005,ISBN 1-84183-075-5
• Seton Gordon’s Scotland, Whittles Publishing, 2005,ISBN 1-904445-22-5
• The Mountains Look on Marrakech, Whittles Publishing,ISBN 1-870325-29-X
• The Scottish Mountains, Colin Baxter Photography, 2007,ISBN 1-84107-367-9 (With Alan Gordon)
• A Scottish Graveyard Miscellany: The Folk Art of Scotland's Graves, Birlinn Publishing, 2008,ISBN 1-84158-676-5
• Walking the Mull Hills, Brown & Whittaker, 2011,ISBN 9781904353157
• The Oldest Post Office in the World, Sandstone Press, 2012,ISBN 1-90520-795-6
• The High Atlas: Treks and climbs on Morocco's biggest and best mountains, Cicerone Press, 2012,ISBN 1-85284-671-2
• Three Men on the Way Way: A Story of Walking the West Highland Way, Whittles Publishing, 2013,ISBN 1849950873
• Tom Weir: An Anthology, Sandstone Press, 2013,ISBN 190873728X (Editor)
• Fantasies, Fables, Fibs and Frolics: Stories From The Heart of Scotland, Pettycur Publishing, 2014,^{[ISBN missing]}
• Canals Across Scotland: Walking, Cycling, Boating, Visiting, Whittles Publishing, 2016,ISBN 9781849952200
• Walking the Song, Sandstone Press, 2017,ISBN 9781910985588
• East of West, West of East, Sandstone Press, 2018,ISBN 9781912240258
• Chasing the Dreams, Sandstone Press, 2019,ISBN 9781912240784
• Exploring the Fife Coastal Path: A Companion Guide, Barlinn Publishing, 2021,ISBN 9781780277288

Hamish Brown has also contributed to:

• Walker's Companion: Scotland, Ward Lock, 1994,ISBN 9780706372458
• Rough Guide to Morocco, Rough Guides, 2004,ISBN 1-84353-313-8
• Rough Guide to Scotland, Rough Guides, 2006,ISBN 1-84353-666-8
• Munros Tables, Scottish Mountaineering Trust, 1981ISBN 978-0907521099
• The Corbetts And Other Scottish Hills, Scottish Mountaineering Trust, 1990,ISBN 0-907521-29-0
• The Munros, Scottish Mountaineering Trust, 1985, 0-907521-13-4

• The Last Hundred, Hamish Brown,ISBN 1-85158-607-5
• The Great Walking Adventure, Hamish BrownISBN 0-946609-12-8
• Biographical Information
• Biographical Information

Footnotes

• Members of the Order of the British Empire
• Scottish mountain climbers
• 1934 births
• Living people
• British non-fiction writers
• Walkers of the United Kingdom
• People educated at Dollar Academy
• British male writers
• British male non-fiction writers
• Climbing and mountaineering writers

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from February 2021
• Use British English from July 2012
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from July 2009
• Pages with missing ISBNs