Hillbaggers Top 52 playing cards

Unless you are a mountaineer or fervent hill walker you probably won’t have heard of many of the terms used in this interesting pack. Hill bagging is an activity in which hikers, climbers, and mountaineers attempt to reach a collection of summits, published in the form of a list. The lists featured in this pack are the Munros, Corbetts, Wainwrights and the Welsh Hewitts, and 13 of each group are shown on each suit. Since there are many hundreds of mountains and hills that might have been included (there are 282 Munros alone) the pack portrays only a small selection.

The spades show the Munros (the mountains in Scotland over 3000 feet high); the clubs depict the Corbetts (Scottish hills between 2500 and 2999 feet high with a drop of at least 500 feet on all sides); the heart suit is devoted to the Wainwrights (the English peaks or fells described in Alfred Wainwright's seven-volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells); and the diamonds portray the Welsh Hewitts (hills in Wales over 2000 feet high with a drop of at least 98 feet all round).

Each card in the pack shows a picture of the relevant hill or mountain with brief description, height, and OS reference along the sides. The court cards are double-ended, with one end depicting the hill or mountain, the other depicting the King, Queen or Jack, each suit with differently coloured costumes. The pack was designed by Caroline McCann and was produced by Top Munro Ltd. in 2019.

Above: Hillbaggers Top 52 playing cards designed by Caroline McCann and produced by Top Munro Ltd, 2019.