Why I Built MunroMapping

I’d been tracking hikes on Strava for years. Hundreds of activities. But Strava shows routes, not which summits you’ve actually stood on.

Tried spreadsheets. Tried manual logging. Both terrible.

The Problem

You can’t remember which Munros you’ve done. Was that Ben More in Mull or the one near Crianlarich? Did we actually summit that day or turn back because of weather?

GPS data knows. Your Strava account has the coordinates. Match them to summit locations and you know.

Building It

First version was a Python script that read GPX files. Dumped red dots on a map of Scotland. Worked, looked terrible.

Made it a website. Added Strava OAuth. Added map generation. Added payments because hosting isn’t free.

Took about 6 months of weekends. Most of that was fighting with map rendering libraries and getting Strava’s API to behave.

The Plotting Library

Map generation itself is a separate library - munromap. That’s where the actual cartography happens. All the plotting logic lives there.

This web app just handles user accounts, Strava integration, and serving maps. Separation of concerns and all that.

Why Open About It?

Because pretending software appears by magic is boring.

This runs in Docker on a Synology NAS. Uses Flask, Celery for async task processing, Redis for the message queue. Strava API for the GPS data.

When map generation hits 90% and hangs? Celery worker crashed because environment variables weren’t set right. Fixed it, documented it, moved on.

What’s Next

More map customization options maybe. Different color schemes. Optional satellite base layer.

Or maybe nothing. It works. People use it. That’s enough.

Try It

If you track hikes, connect your Strava and see which summits you’ve actually tagged.

Five-minute setup. Order physical prints (A1 from £75, A2 from £65) - digital high-res download included with every order.

That’s the pitch.