The Scottish Mountaineering Club was formed in Glasgow 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. By contrast, the founder members of the SMC included a good number who already had Alpine experience and wished to use their skills in their native country.
In the early 1960s the SMC formed a charitable trust, the Scottish Mountaineering Trust. Part funded by revenue from the SMC's guidebooks, the Trust has given support to many projects over the years, including to the National Trust for Scotland and of the John Muir Trust and to footpath maintenance projects generally. The Trust also supports Mountaineering Scotland.
Publisher's website 2018
Probably the most significant contribution to Scottish hillwalking in recent times, this is the first and only colour definitive guidebook to The Grahams & The Donalds and follows in the footsteps of the Scottish Mountaineering Club's best selling guidebooks to The Munros and The Corbetts. There are colour location maps of each group, together with their neighbouring hills, plus 175 detailed colour route maps and over 250 detailed descriptions, including links to other hills. The guidebook is illustrated by 320 colour photographs of the hills. There are Gaelic hill name translations plus an indexed list of Grahams and Donalds in height order, together with a full standard index.