Top dog! Mountaineer pooch Betty scales Scotland's highest summits (2025)

She is a top mountaineer who is well used to climbing Scotland’s top summits.

Betty, a Kerry Blue Terrier, has become the first dog to complete all six major hill categories north of the Border including 282 Munros, 227 Munro Tops, 222 Corbetts, 231 Grahams and 140 Donalds.

She has also reached the summits of 22 Furths - the highest peaks in England, Wales and Ireland.

The nine-year-old pooch is among an elite group for fewer than 100 people have accomplished the feat.

Alongside her owner Shona Marshall the pair have now completed their final mountain summit - the 2,818ft tall Morrone, near Braemar, in Royal Deeside.

Ms Marshall, from Kinloss, Moray, who has always been a keen hill-walker, adopted Betty during the Covid lockdown.

And a year later the pair had climbed every Munro - a feat which takes on average 15 years to complete.

The 60-year-old, who lives in Moray, said: ‘I got Betty when she was around 16 months old.

‘We started just as we came out of lockdown, on 14 April 2021.

‘One of my neighbours only had 30 Munros left to complete, so we decided to go out with him and help him finish.

‘In the end, he did over 100 Munros of our round, and we completed them all a year after we started.’

She then decided the pair should tackle the Munro Tops - a selection of smaller peaks under 3,000ft.

Shortly after came the Donalds, mountains in the Scottish Borders that are over 2,000ft high and once she learned no dog had ever completed a ‘full house’ including Scotland’s top summits and the highest peaks in England, Wales and Ireland, Ms Marshall was keen to taken on the challenge before Betty turns 10 this June.

She said they averages about four hills a week and completed the feat at the weekend.

Ms Marshall added: ‘It was mentioned to me that no dogs had done the full house - and I only realised at the end of last year that fewer than 100 people have done a full house.

‘The initial aim was to complete by June - by Betty’s tenth birthday, because you just don’t know how long you’re going to have your dog around and how long they’re going to be capable of walking up hills.

‘When I got pushed for a completion date last summer, I thought that if we pull our finger out, we could complete within four years, so that’s why the 12 April was picked.’

Betty munched her way through more than 800 hard boiled eggs, her favourite hill food, during the full house round and also ate 415 tins of sardines.

Wales

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