Edinburgh. 1898. on the cusp of the modern age. Caleb George Cash mountaineer, geographer, antiquarian and teacher stands at the rocky summit of Arthur’s Seat.

His reason for standing there was to chart which mountains were visible from his point on the summit – The Arthurs. He came up with a list of twenty mountains (all over 100ft/300m high), including Schiehallion and Ben Lomond. Caleb’s list was first published in 1899, eight years after Munro published his list of mountains over 3000ft, and since then it has been all but forgotten.

This book tells the story of how Caleb’s list came about and provides directions and route descriptions for those wishing to climb the mountains on the list. More than just a climbing book, this is also the story of a survivor. The author was diagnosed with AIDS at the age of 33, and becoming an ‘Arthurist’ has helped him carry on with life.

Back cover text:

Sometimes I sit at the top of a hill and think… how lucky to be there… a long term survivor of HIV…

From somewhere came the idea of climbing the Scottish mountains visible from Arthur’s Seat.

Making a journey through a distant line of hills from 73 degrees to 1 degree west of north…

I could survive HIV/AIDS…

I could weather the storm…

I could climb the hills on Caleb’s List

Reviews:

The book is an impressionistic work, which combines disjointed memories from his past with descriptions of the climbs and information on Cash. The Scotsman

A triumphant debut. The Great Outdoors

A tribute to the healing power of the Scottish landscape and to survival against the odds. The Scotsman