Scots mountaineering legend Hamish MacInnes would have been firmly against plans to name a controversial new development in his honour, according to a charity trustee.
The owners of the climber's former home in Glencoe, which was later bought by child sex offender Jimmy Savile, have lodged a fresh application to demolish it and build a private residence that the community "can be proud of."
Their intention is to name a smaller property on the site 'Hamish House', in honour of Dr MacInnes who set up Glencoe Mountain Rescue and was awarded an OBE in 1979.
It will replace the workshop where he perfected the first all-metal ice axe and the MacInnes stretcher, the lightweight folding alloy stretcher used world-wide in mountain rescue.
Hamish House will be accompanied by a plaque honouring the Galloway-born mountaineer, explorer and author.
Graeme Hunter, a trustee of the MacInnes Alpine Trust, said it was his opinion that the plan would not have won the approval of MacInnes, who died in December 2020 at the age of 90. Mr Hunter has lodged a formal objection with Highland Council.
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He writes: "It was his wish that NO memorials or such like to be established in his name, and particularly wished not to be associated with any such projects or proposals in Allt-Na-Reigh in his name." Mr Hunter said it was his opinion that the house should be demolished and "returned to nature."
Another objector, who claims he knew the mountaineer personally, went further saying Dr MacInnes would have been "insulted by such a gesture".
The climber was known for his self-deprecating sense of humour but welcomed journalists to his home to regale them with stories from his adventuring days.
The development is being led by retail tycoon Harris Aslam and his business partner Raza Rehman and family.
Following Savile's death in 2011, the two-bedroom bungalow was put up for auction and was purchased for £212,000 by an Edinburgh builder and later acquired by Mr Aslam for a reported £335,000.
The owners say the revised plans were drawn up after close consultation with community groups and Mountaineering Scotland but did not say if any of Dr MacInnes's family were approached.
A spokesman for Mr Aslam said he would not be making any further comments until a decision is reached by Highland Council.
Hamish MacInnes lived in the property until 1998, when the house was purchased by Savile.
He later said that he was hoodwinked by the former BBC DJ, now known to have been one of the UK's worst sex offenders and pleaded that the house not be demolished.
However, after his death a friend of MacInnes told the BBC that MacInnes "would have wanted" the house knocked down to "remove the stain from the landscape."
The mountaineer took part in more than 20 expeditions, from the Caucasus to the Amazon.
He is most revered by his fellow Scottish climbers for the part he played in an audacious expedition to Everest in 1953.
He was only 23 at the time, and he failed to make it to the top of Everest. But the trip was testimony to his ambition and endurance, and perhaps the best-loved of his adventure
He was born in Gatehouse of Fleet, in Dumfries and Galloway, but his roots were in the Highlands. Both parents were Gaelic speakers; his mother, Katie (nee MacDonald), was from Skye, and his father, Duncan from Fort William.
The youngest of five siblings, he moved to Greenock with his family at the age of 14.
He is said to have watched a neighbour loading a motorbike with climbing gear and asked to join him. His first climb was on the Cobbler, the jagged peak above Arrochar in the southern Highlands.
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