Tom Weir an Anthology

Tom Weir was one of Scotland’s enduring outdoor characters, producing the My Month feature in the Scots Magazine and then presenting Weir’s Way on television.

But his influence spread wider than his home nation and he was an early pioneer of Himalayan mountaineering and recipient of the first John Muir lifetime achievement award.

Tom Weir an Anthology is a collection put together by admirer turned collaborator Hamish Brown.

The pieces give an insight into Weir’s early life in Glasgow, the dissatisfaction of working in a grocery store; his unconventional espousing of the outdoor world and remarkable early expeditions in Nepal painting a period picture of two cultures slowly discovering each other as the wonders of the Himalaya begin to be explored.

There are explorations closer to home in Sutherland, the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, with Weir’s homely descriptions demonstrating his love of both the geography and people of his nation.

A friend of fellow climbing luminary Doug Scott, Weir’s travels read like an early Michael Palin itinerary, but with mountains as the goal: Morocco, Kurdistan, Greenland, with a seemingly carefree approach to exploration – a window on a world no longer possible.

And how many of the thousands who plod up the tourist track to the top of Ben Nevis are aware that at one time there was a hut half way up – where Weir once ‘dossed’ – where you were required to pay a shilling (5p) for the privilege of using the track, or 4/- if you rode a pony?

Weir goes on to describe in detail the horror, fatalism and calm he experienced as he hurtled down the side of Stob Gabhar after being avalanched.

There are some fabulous pictures in the anthology both of characters and places that have changed hugely, along with some typically quirky photographs. My favourite is an almost surreal shot of Dick Balharrie cradling a young deer while its mother inspects it and, curiously, the muzzles of two pones sniff at close quarters the man’s head.

Hamish Brown’s collection of Tom Weir’s work paints a fascinating canvas of a world gone forever, where parts of Scotland were still pretty much pre-industrial; where mountaineers could roll up in foreign parts and casually hire a few donkeys and start an expedition; and where a grown (if small in stature) man could don his old school uniform to wangle a child’s train ticket to Tyndrum.

Tom Weir an Anthology is published by Sandstone Press, £14.99 softback.