Published: The Scotsman (TSMag) 23 May 2013
IN A STONE-BUILT barn beside his house near Fort William, Royal Marine turned mountain guide Mick Tighe is showing me around his vast collection of mountaineering memorabilia. “Old junk,” the no-nonsense 63-year-old calls it in his clipped Derbyshire accent but, really, it’s anything but. Stacks of neatly labelled cardboard boxes reveal treasure after treasure. One contains a number of items belonging to the late climber, author and broadcaster Tom Weir: his twin-lens reflex Mamiyaflex camera, his box brownie, even one of his trademark bobble hats. Another box contains a selection of vintage compasses and other instruments, including an altimeter belonging to Harold Raeburn. A giant of Scottish mountaineering in the early 20th century, Raeburn pioneered a number of classic climbing routes up Ben Nevis and was also mountaineering leader on the ill-fated 1921 British Reconnaissance Expedition to Mount Everest, which was seriously derailed by an outbreak of dysentery. One member of the party died in the mountains and Raeburn became so ill that he never fully recovered, eventually dying in Edinburgh in 1926. Carefully, Tighe opens the altimeter’s protective leather case. Given the adventures it must have been on, you’d expect it to be battered and cracked, but it’s still in mint condition. Not only that, compared to today’s robust, chunky looking outdoor gear, it seems impossibly fragile, its needle wafer thin.
Tighe’s barn is full of objects that offer similar glimpses into climbing history – from vintage crampons forged by blacksmiths to game-changing ice axes, it seems every object has its own compelling story to tell. In any other country in the world with a mountaineering heritage as rich as Scotland’s, these artefacts would long since have been gathered together and put on public display in a purpose-built museum, but Tighe’s attempts to make this happen have always been frustrated. The lack of a suitable home for his collection hasn’t stopped him trying to get it seen by a wider audience, however, and he has set up various mini-exhibitions over the years in whisky distilleries and at mountain film festivals. This summer, true to form, he has arranged for a small display to be installed in the window of a vacant shop on Fort William High Street, from 10 June. Continue reading →