The Scottish Mountaineering Trust will benefit. 

The trustees of The Scottish Mountaineering Trust (SMT) have announced they are the sole beneficiary of the £446,000 estate of Hamish MacInnes, one of the greatest Scottish mountaineers and innovators of our time. 

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. 

Hamish MacInnes, 'The Fox of Glencoe', 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 the projects SMT has traditionally supported that include mountain access, skills training and mountain rescue, the broadening support 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.  

The SMT will still promote safe participation for all in mountaineering and will continue to welcome applications for education and training projects in the hills.

SMT chairman, David Broadhead, said: “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.” 

Since 1990 SMT have donated £1,982,000 to a wide variety of organisations and individuals that support and promote physical and mental health and empowerment, education and training, and public recreation through hillwalking, rock climbing, winter mountaineering and ski touring in Scotland's mountains. 

Projects have included upland footpath repair schemes, mountain rescue equipment and facilities, mountain hut renovation, life enhancing mountain experiences for disadvantaged communities, training in mountain safety and skills, publishing guides and information about the mountains, and expeditions with clear scientific or educational objectives.

Kevin Lelland from The John Muir Trust, an SMT Grant beneficiary, said: “We have nothing but praise for the SMT. We have enjoyed a relationship for almost 25 years and received about £200k that has enabled us to make the mountains accessible to everybody.”