Fascinating pictures that reveal Scotland's pioneering mountaineers

At home in Paisley and later Kilmacolm, he carefully stuck the images into leather bound photo albums accompanied by handwritten notes explaining their location, who was there, the weather, the sights and even the time they set out.

The result is hundreds of images that not only provide an enthralling glimpse into the lives of Scotland’s late 19th century and early 20th century rock climbers and mountaineers, but an invaluable record of the mountains, snow cover, weather conditions and potentially even plants and trees which could help researchers for years to come.

His family has now handed the albums to the National Library of Scotland for safekeeping and for the nation to enjoy.

According to Rachel Beattie, curator of the National Library of Scotland’s Archive and Manuscript Collection, they form a remarkable record of the camaraderie among the mountaineering community, and the challenges they faced in pursuit of their sport, while dressed in what appear to be everyday clothes and even, on occasion, puffing on their pipes.

They also show women climbers, often dressed for the hills in heavy skirts and even, in one image, teenage schoolgirls in pinafores, with hefty climbing ropes hooped around their shoulders.

“Harry was obviously quite an adventurer, and the equipment and the clothes they are using in the photographs compared to what is used today is incredible,” she said.

“These are beautiful images to look at, but they also tell us about mountaineering at the time – the mix of people and society, the positives and the negatives. For example, it’s clear they needed a lot of time to be able to devote to climbing.

“Just getting to where they want to do to climb would have been a challenge.”

The images include a selfie, snapped in April, 1904, by Harry as he tackled Goat Fell on the Isle of Arran. It shows him wrapped up against the chill, with ice on his woolly cap and frost on his jacket.

While other photographs capture the drama of the climb: mountaineers roped together tackling a steep ascent to the summit of Ben Lui and a trio – with a woman in ankle skimming skirt – climbing Witches Step on the Isle of Arran.

One shows a group of four climbers casually relaxing on a rocky buttress, apparently unconcerned by the sheer drop below.

What makes the albums particularly special was the attention to detail in the handwritten captions he penned alongside each image.

As well as the locations and dates, Harry recorded the names and initials of the climbers who accompanied him, including Sir Hugh Munro, whose Munro’s Table in 1891 listed Scotland’s mountains of more than 3,000 ft, and John Rooke Corbett, who recorded the 221 summits between 2500 and 3000 feet high, with at least 500 feet of descent on all sides, and which became known as Corbetts.

The albums span almost 50 years, from 1898 to his final collection in 1945, when, in his mid-60s, Harry, a former vice president of the Alpine Club and member of the Scottish Mountaineering Club appears to have switched from the demands of mountaineering, to skiing.

An obituary in the Alpine Journal following his death in 1954, said he was “skilled in all branches” of mountaineering, adding: “He brought to all its problems a dry humour which was irresistible, and he was as kindly as he was efficient.”

That efficiency would have been of utmost necessity when, in summer 1914 and during an expedition to the Swiss Alps, word arrived with his part of war in Europe.

It required a quick departure and a battle to make it back to Britain.

“The party journeyed to Marseilles, where one of them had a £5 note which he managed to change to local currency and which paid for their ship passage home,” says his great-niece, Fiona Garwood, who handed the albums into the care of NLS.

“They managed to get one cabin and the rest had to go into steerage along with all the refuges that were trying to flee the country at the same time.”

On arrival home, he enlisted with the Highland Light Infantry, and served as a Lieutenant and then Captain. His creative talent extended to drawing, and he also produced a series of drawings of the trenches and ‘bird’s eye view’ scenes of battlefields.

She added: “He and other climbers were obviously very keen and passionate. His notes talk about catching very early trains in order to go climbing. And, of course, there are no helmets. They are wearing ties, shirts and jackets.

“What is also interesting is the women climbers, who must have had to hitch up their skirts once the camera was out of sight.”

As his notes show, his mountain adventures would have been in stark contrast to his day job as a chartered accountant.

One annotation next to a photograph of two fellow climbers on Stob Garbh halting in the snow for a lunchbreak, in February 1909, records: “From Glasgow by 5.10am train and had breakfast in hotel. Then round to the east side of Stob Garbh and up hard snow to summit.

“Great views from here all round, specially of Cruach Ardrain. Along ridge and cut up latter.”

He adds: “Views lost here in mist but very brilliant brocken spectres, down icy north face and back to hotel at 4pm.”

Another records a challenging mid-summer climb in the Swiss Alps which saw the party set off at 2.15am for the Arolla Glacier, breakfasting on the moraine “in deadly cold dawn”.

He adds: “Thereafter up steep slopes and managed to hit right route on to rocks. Very easy until gap on summit ridge. Here powdery snow on ice, and rather sensational.”

The climb continued amid magnificent scenery before finishing at 6pm. “Most successful climb,” he concludes.

The albums contents are currently being catalogued, and there are hopes they may be digitised. They are expected to be of particular interest to researchers exploring the impact of climate change.

Ms Beattie added: “His purpose was to document the climb, but in doing so he also captured the world and places at that time.

“There is interesting potential for researchers to see the changes in landscape, and for the photographs to be used for much more than as a sporting history.”