I
a
the '30s and '40s," saysGrieve. Then Scottish climbing star
Hamish Maclnnesestablishedthe rescuein 1961,with a
returned Bhutanese tea planter farmer, the owner of the
local ClachaigInn, a fisherman and an electrician- plus the
Elliots - forming the backbone of a cosmopolitan team of
spirited amateurs.
The Elliot siblings' lives have since encompassedhuge
changesin Glencoe,particularlyinthe demographicof people
enjoying the landscape.They have seen tourism shift from
the originalEdinburghgentry climbers,through the workingclassclimbing and cycling clubs of the inter-waryears,to the
huge foreign tourism oftoday They havealsoborne witness
to a changinglandscape.The Glen is no longer the working
pastureit once was and The NationalTiust's recent drive to
re-wild the Glen, which involved taking sheep off the land,
wasan actionwith cultural aswell asaestheticconsequences.
Speakingofhow parts ofthe Glen are now overgrown and
inaccessible,Doris Elliot suggestsa definition of landscape
inseparablefrom that of farming culture: "Vithout animals,"
she says,"you've reallygot no countryside".
The Highlands are still a huge attraction to tourists worth around 512bn to the Scottish economy last year
- but they also draw people to work, and the rescue
team is constantlvevolvingasnew familiestake up residence
in GIencoe.
Amongst the new members Brian Bathurst's story
stands out as atypical.A refugee from the Mugabe regime
in Zimbabwe, he landed in London in 1999, taking on
handyrnanningwork which drew on skills he'd learned on
the family'ssmall tobaccofarm. But Bathurstwasn't destined
to stay in the metropolis for long and the call of the wild
quickly drew him north. 'All I seemedto do in London was
wait for trainsand pay parking fines,"he tells me over dinner
at his Ballachulishhome.
After a few visitsto an electriciantriend in the Highlands,the
mal alternativepresented iself and Bathurst decided to make
the breakandmovedto Scotlandwithhiswife Michellein 20M.
Sincethen his building businesshastakenoff "l'm too busy,if
anlthing," saysthe hard lookingbut mild manneredexpatriate.
A largepainting ofa cheetahadornsthe wall ofthe upstairs
flat, along with photos of gazelleand sugar cane burning.
Bathurst cleady misses the old country and dreams of
returning to the Zambezi someday,but finds something of
his desiressatisfiedby the raw landscapesofGlencoe and
his experiencesin the rescue."\Vhen you're out in terrible
winter weatheq at a time or place nobody would ever think
of, it's absolutelyfantastic,"he says.
Also joining us is the shaggy-hairedprawn fisherman Bob
Hamilton, a Himalayanveteranwith a reputation for taking new
membersunderhiswing. "Brian'sa natural,a brillianthill man,"
overhis roastlamb.Bathursthas
salsHamiltonenthusiastically
risenrapidlyunder Hamilton'stutelageand will be one of tn'o
depury team leaderswhenJohn Grievestepsaside.
From his of;fices at Lochaber Shellfish, with the
winter weather gathering outside,John Grieve explainsthe
importanceof the communiryaspect- and the independence
- of the Glencoerescueselice.
"If you go to the Lake District or North Walesyou'll see
people in uniform with badgesand the like.As you see,we're
a bit more anarchic here. The fact that we don't get paid,
unlike the statutory emergencysenices like lifeboats,has a
fantasticspin off becausewe don't come under any Health
and Saferylegislation.Wedon't haveanyformal training.How
many people did you seewearing a helmet on the rescueon
the Buachaille?\Vego where we want and do what we like."
In2074, Grieve coordinated more than 70 rescues,many
of them from these offices which look out onto his fishing
boas, bobbing awayon a purpling, steep-sidedsealoch. He
formed LochaberShellfishafter'coming ashore',and clearly
has good businesssenseas well as a formidable mountain
brain. He also has a remarkablesenseof dury "l run a full
emergencyseMce. I mean, I don't get paid. I go our of here
and when the switch goes,I'm doing another job." he says.
Grieve is passionateabout the independent, voluntary
nature of the Glencoe rescueand hopes this will continue.
At the moment his team survive happily on a small subsidy
andgenerouspublic donations;a new teamLandRoverwill be
deliveredshortly a gift from friendsof a climberkilled lastyear
in Glencoe.But the structure of mountain rescueis changing
elsewhere in Scotland,with the trend towards embedded
police professionalsoperating within an amateur team. So
far the Glencoeoutfit haveresistedthis trend. "I'm not going
to mn a rescuewhere I've got our people unpaid and other
people doing the samething paid," saysGrieve.
He also hopes that neq and potentially
dangerous,compledties with regardsto the
rescue call outs will be resolved,and
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