Raeburn remained a bachelor all his life but he climbed with both men and women, including his sister Ruth, herself an expert climber, and Jane Inglis Clark, a founder of the Scottish Ladies Mountaineering Club. The (all-male) Scottish Mountaineering Club (SMC) was founded in 1889 and Raeburn joined in 1896. Within a few years he became its leading climber serving as Vice-President from 1909 to 1911 and later turning down the Presidency. He recorded many classic routes throughout Scotland: there are several "Raeburn's Gullies" scattered across the land.