{"id":26503,"date":"2022-11-30T12:13:49","date_gmt":"2022-11-30T12:13:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/?p=26503"},"modified":"2026-05-05T08:11:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T08:11:45","slug":"one-mans-legacy-tom-patey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/one-mans-legacy-tom-patey\/","title":{"rendered":"One Man’s Legacy – Tom Patey"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A new book by Mike Dixon chronicles the brief but brilliant life of Dr Tom Patey: bard, musician, and one of Scotland\u2019s foremost climbers and mountaineers. His story is one of pioneering ascents and boundless enthusiasm, and his spontaneity, carefree approach and ability to burn the candle at both ends remain legendary, several decades after his untimely death.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By drawing on Patey\u2019s essays and verses the narrative is imbued with dry wit and gentle satire, and brought to life by unseen images from renowned photographer John Cleare and the Patey family archive. Supported by a foreword from Mick Fowler and first-hand insights from some of the leading climbers of the last century, including Sir Chris Bonington, Joe Brown and Paul Nunn, One Man\u2019s Legacy celebrates a complex, larger-than-life character who rightly deserves his place in mountaineering history. The following extract describes when 16 year old Tom took a trip to Bob Scott’s with some of the fellow college pupils who helped shape him.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

New Year 1949. The Cairngorms were in full winter condition and blanketed under a substantial depth of snow. Inspired by Sir Hugh\u2019s Munro\u2019s 1891 list of Scottish peaks over 3,000ft, a youthful Patey and some of his fellow Robert Gordon\u2019s College pupils had based themselves at Bob Scott\u2019s bothy at Luibeg for some \u2018hill bashing\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bothy was a popular destination for Hogmanay, and as many as 40 climbers were housed in the main room and various outbuildings. Bob Scott, the keeper, lived in the adjacent cottage with his wife. He had worked for the Mar Estate since leaving school at the age of 12 and was considered one of the quintessential characters of the Cairngorms in the \u201950s and \u201960s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The charge at the bothy was one shilling a night, which helped supplement the stalker\u2019s meagre agricultural wage. Firewood was free as long as guests helped with the sawing and chopping.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott, who had an infectious laugh and a great sense of humour, would often give the occupants an entertaining natural history lesson. He was a master storyteller, particularly about his war experiences, and he could deflate anybody with pretensions or self-importance with a cutting phrase delivered in his sonorous North-East accent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott found Patey and his friends amusing, and he called them the \u2018Horrible Hielanders\u2019. On one occasion, he expressed disappointment that one lad had lost his knife and fork, and butter and jam were sticking to all their stuff. Patey showed his naivety by drying his wet boots over a primus stove, and one of them became so malformed that he could not get it on his foot the next day. Upon telling them off for swearing, Scott received the reply: \u2018We can\u2019t get harmed with the minister\u2019s son here,\u2019 as if they had some sort of diplomatic immunity because Patey\u2019s father was a minister. The keeper\u2019s blunt retort quickly rectified this assumption, and from then on, profanities were uttered well out of earshot. Adam Watson, who first met Patey at Luibeg, was also unimpressed: \u2018Two young bodies, one Patey of Ellon and another of Aberdeen, wandered in and created a hell of a mess of spilt oatmeal, porridge and paraffin.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
The Horrible Hielanders at Luibeg on 7 Jan 1949. According to Tom: “L-R: I. Rettle (complete in kilt), D. Haston, A. Gill, B. Falconer and Me! I had not washed for 6 days. The picture was taken in the pouring rain on the day of departure. The owner of the sullen face protruding through the bothy door is Bill Brooker…”
Photo \u00a9 Ian Patey collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Bill Brooker, one of the leading lights in Scottish mountaineering at that time, recalls the temperature that New Year:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

It was right down into the bulb \u2026 [even the] eggs were frozen hard. We were ensconced in the bothy in fair comfort among the straw and so on. That night, a group of young lads\u2009\u2014\u200aone or two clad in kilts no less\u2009\u2014\u200acame off the mountains, having spent the night on Ben Macdui, and were ignominiously shoved into Bob Scott\u2019s stick shed, which had open wooden slatted sides and was not at all snug. I later discovered one of them had been Tom.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Patey, who had a wide repertoire of classic literary quotations, described conditions inside Luibeg by quoting Keats: \u2018Ah bitter chill it was.\u2019 A hole in the iced-over burn had to be opened each day to access the water below. Later, the youngsters were allowed into the main bothy, where Patey\u2019s eyes were opened to another way of experiencing mountains, so much more vibrant and exciting than the one he and his school peers were used to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was, of course, a strict pecking order, and those considered most important sat closer to the comfort of the fire. Two armchairs were reserved for Brooker and Malcolm (Mac) Smith, while the Horrible Hielanders were confined to the chillier recesses of the room.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Bob Scott’s today<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Smith, in his late 20s, was the authority on Cairngorm crags and corries at that time. A member of the Etchachan Club, he became a ringmaster and mentor to a younger generation, including Patey, whose lives revolved around escaping to the hills. Smith was a polymath with a keen interest in insects, plants, photography, jazz, literature and debate, and someone very different from the callow youths and stuffy adults that Patey knew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 17, Brooker\u2019s star was rising on the Cairngorm climbing scene. He was just a little older than Patey but had the social skills and personality to assimilate into any group, a feature that endeared him to many throughout his life. His talent for climbing emerged at an early age: at 14, he had cycled to Skye with a fellow Scout and soloed the Inaccessible Pinnacle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Smith was the Chieftain of the Luibeg Clan, Patey characterised Brooker as the \u2018young Lochinvar\u2019 who \u2018cut a more dashing figure, the complete counterpart to Mac\u2019s slightly reserved manner. To all outward appearances, he was merely another pimply-faced schoolboy like ourselves, full of wild talk.\u2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After making the first winter ascent of Crystal Ridge in Coire Sputan Dearg, Brooker and Smith returned late to the bothy with evident signs of having engaged in a tussle but beaming and elated by the climb. Visiting some obscure Munro Top seemed anodyne by comparison. Patey had glimpsed a vitality in these \u2018real mountaineers\u2019 and the exhilarating activity they pursued, which caused him to take stock:<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Tom Patey in 1949. Photo \u00a9 Ian Patey collection<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n
\n

These men spoke of icy vigils and gigantic ice-falls; routes that finished long after dark; remote bivouacs in faraway corries; riotous nights in bothies; late-night dances in Braemar and brimming tankards in the Fife Arms. Adventure, unconventionality, exuberance\u2009\u2014\u200athese were the very elements missing from our scholarly conception of mountaineering which had led us with mathematical precision up and down the weary lists of Munro\u2019s Tables.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

That New Year precipitated a radical change in Patey\u2019s attitude and put him in contact with men who would have a significant influence on him and with whom he would subsequently establish lifelong friendships. This exposure to a more adventurous way of life in the mountains opened up his horizons, and in time, he would become the chief prophet of that holy trinity of adventure, unconventionality and exuberance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Man’s Legacy<\/a> by Mike Dixon is published by the Scottish Mountaineering Press and is available from bookshop<\/a>.<\/em>
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A new book by Mike Dixon chronicles the brief but brilliant life of Dr Tom Patey: bard, musician, and one of Scotland\u2019s foremost climbers and mountaineers. His story is one of pioneering ascents and boundless enthusiasm, and his spontaneity, carefree approach and ability to burn the candle at both ends remain legendary, several decades after his untimely death. By drawing on Patey\u2019s essays and verses the narrative is imbued with dry wit and gentle satire, and brought to life by unseen images from renowned photographer John Cleare and the Patey family archive. Supported by a foreword from Mick Fowler and…<\/span> <\/p>\n

Read more ›<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":26509,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-magazine"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26503"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26503\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29319,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26503\/revisions\/29319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.walkhighlands.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}