A famous Scottish climber who once sold his Glen Coe cottage to Jimmy Savile has left an estate worth nearly half-a-million to help future mountaineers.
Dr Hamish MacInnes, who died aged 90 in 2020, was once described as ‘the father of modern mountain rescue’ before working as an adviser on Clint Eastwood’s film The Eiger Sanction as well as Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Nicknamed ‘The Fox of Glencoe’, MacInnes also designed the first all-metal ice axe and even worked with Robert De Niro and Sir Sean Connery in the 1980s while cementing himself as one of Scotland’s greatest-ever adventurers.
Upon his death after battling illness in 2020, MacInnes’ trustees said they were keen to help future generations enjoy the mountains that ‘meant so much to him’ and decided the best way to achieve this would be to donate his estate in its entirety.
And now, The Scottish Mountaineering Trust (SMT) have announced that they will be the sole beneficiary of the estate worth an eye-watering £446,000, enabling them to provide ‘life-enhancing’ opportunities to aspiring mountaineers.
‘This significant donation will enable the SMT to expand their grant support for organisations that encourage individuals and groups to experience life enhancing mountain activities,’ said the organisation.
‘Hamish MacInnes was confident, ambitious, determined, pragmatic, and adventurous, and the Trust are keen to see these admirable qualities being developed in more people through a broadening of their grant-funded projects.
‘In addition to projects they have traditionally supported that include mountain access, skills training and mountain rescue, the broadening means that the Trustees would like to see more applications from bodies that open up the mountains to young people and those from socially disadvantaged communities.
Hamish MacInnes died at his Glencoe home at the age of 90 after battling illness and left behind his estate worth nearly half-a-million to help future mountaineers
Once described as ‘the father of mountain rescue’ and ‘The Fox of Glencoe’, MacInnes was born in Dumfries and Galloway in 1930 and became one of Scotland’s greatest-ever adventurers
MacInnes worked with Clint Eastwood (pictured) in his 1975 film, The Eiger Sanction, where Eastwood’s character – a former assassin – agrees to join an international climbing team in Switzerland to carry out one last job
Since 1990, SMT have donated £1,982,000 to a wide variety of organisations and individuals.
Their work promotes physical and mental health through education, training, and public recreation through hillwalking, rock climbing, winter mountaineering and ski touring in Scotland’s mountains.
Some of their other initiatives have included upland footpath repair schemes, mountain hut renovation, training in mountain safety and skills and expeditions with clear scientific or educational objectives.
SMT Chairman, David Broadhead, said the organisation is ‘delighted’ to take on the ‘big responsibility’ of maintaining MacInnes’ legacy.
‘We are delighted that the MacInnes trustees have decided to pass Hamish’s legacy to the SMT.
‘We recognise that this is a big responsibility, as Hamish was a complete individual steering his own course through life, and the SMT will ensure that his values and memory will live on through the projects we support.’
Known as one of the greatest mountaineers of our time, MacInnes brushed shoulders with all walks of life and even penned at least 26 books ranging from climbing guides to crime thrillers.
English mountaineer Doug Scott and MacInnes are seen climbing during an icefall on Mount Everest
Known as one of the greatest mountaineers of our time, MacInnes brushed shoulders with all walks of life and penned at least 26 books
One of MacInnes’ works, the International Mountain Rescue Handbook, is widely regarded as the industry standard reference work.
He was also awarded The British Empire Medal in 1962 and The Order of The British Empire in 1979 for services to mountaineering and mountain rescue.
MacInnes, who took part in more than 20 climbing expeditions abroad, including four to Mount Everest, was almost killed in an avalanche on the peak in 1975.
But one of his friends, actor Sir Michael Palin, told BBC Scotland that MacInnes saw life as something ‘to grab with both hands’.
In 2008, he was the first recipient of the Scottish Award for Excellence in Mountain Culture, and was an explorer and a prolific inventor, building a car from scratch when he was 17.
In his later life MacInnes battled ill-health, suffering delirium, apparently caused by an acute urinary infection but was misdiagnosed as dementia.
He spent time in psychogeriatric detainment in hospital and made attempts to escape from the building with his health struggles and recovery told in the 2018 film, Final Ascent.
However, his thirst for adventure and desire to break down barriers was in his DNA. His father served in the Chinese police in Shanghai, before joining the British Army and the Canadian Army during the First World War.
His old property, sold to Jimmy Savile, Allt-na-Reigh, is smothered in graffiti both inside and out, and its outbuilding was at the centre of a fire last week.
The outbuildings destroyed by the fire are part of the cottage formerly owned by MacInnes before he sold it to Jimmy Savile
MacInnes said in 2013 that he thought he ‘knew Jimmy well’ and was ‘hoodwinked’ like many others
Disgraced broadcaster Savile would go on to live in the property until he died in October 2011
Councillors in June approved the demolition of the property, dubbed ‘a stain on Scotland’s most outstanding landscape’.
The disgraced broadcaster Savile spent time in Allt-na-Reigh, on the A82, from 1998 until he died.
However, the new owners plan to build a house to honour MacInnes’ legacy.
MacInnes said in 2013: ‘I thought I knew Jimmy well, like most people in this area.
‘But I’ve been left totally bemused by everything that’s been revealed.
‘I suppose I wasn’t the only person to have been hoodwinked. There’s a long list of folk which includes Prince Charles.’
The disgraced DJ once entertained Charles over dinner at the cottage and it was featured in notorious Louis Theroux documentary When Louis Met Jimmy.
