Saturday Morning
Bonar Hall
25 November 2023: 9.30am
Tickets are now only available at the door. See our Ticket page.
Tickets £8
This session includes the Irvine Butterfield Memorial Lecture, presented in conjunction with The Munro Society. There is a tribute to Irvine at the bottom of this web page.
This year, we are delighted to introduce as our speaker Alex Moran with his presentation”The Islands Munro Triathlon”
Before this though, we have, as always, a great selection of Scottish films.
Moving Mountains
UK 2022: Director: Aoife Mckibbin – 13 minutes
Faced with his wife’s life-changing diagnosis of Alzheimer’s, Nick Gardner felt the pull of the hills. This film follows his attempt to climb all the Munros as an 80-plus-year-old. This film, made by students on the FMSU9B8 Documentary Production module at Stirling University, is a gentle portrayal of his love and determination.
Moving Mountains is sponsored by The Grampian Club.
Pawel: Cape Wrath Odyssey
UK 2023: Director: Kevin Woods – 25 minutes
Pawel Cymbalista’s record breaking run of the Cape Wrath Trail in Spring 2023. Pawel took just over three days to cover the 240-mile (386km) Cape Wrath Trail from Fort William to Cape Wrath. He was also the first person to finish the route unsupported, carrying all the food and clothing he needed to sustain him along the way.
The Ascension Series – Adam Raja
UK 2023: Director: Matt Pycroft – 10 minutes
Part 1 of The Ascension Series – tells the story of Adam, a young Glaswegian with Pakistani heritage who spent his youth embroiled in gang culture, knife crime, and drug and alcohol abuse. Until he set foot in the mountains, and there he found the confidence and community that redefined his life. It is a story that explores cultural heritage, identity, and connection to a landscape. At its simplest, it’s the tale of one man’s journey to becoming comfortable with the person he truly is.
Stacked
UK 2023: Director: Robbie Phillips – 23 minutes
Three seastacks, two climbers, and just one day to complete it all. You’ve seen insane climbing challenges on before…but here is a completely pointless challenge. After suffering on The Long Hope, Robbie Phillips and Alex Moore decided they hadn’t had enough adventure for one climbing trip. The Challenge – Climb ‘The Old Man of Hoy’, ‘Am Buichaille’, and ‘The Old Man of Stoer’ in 24hrs. Why? Why Not – It’s a pointless climbing adventure film about a pointless climbing challenge.
Read more about Robbie on his entertaining website
There will be an interval at this part of the morning. Refreshments are served on both levels. Please visit the art exhibitions (both levels) and the Trade Stands in the Ustinov Room
The Irvine Butterfield Memorial Lecture
ALEX MORAN – THE ISLANDS MUNRO TRIATHLON
On Sunday the 22nd August 2021, Alex Moran and Mike Coppock completed the first ever Island Munros Triathlon in 32 hours and 22 minutes. Scaling 13 munros with 6461m of ascent and covering 309 km of distance between them.
The athletes dreamt up this epic adventure with the goal of raising £10,000 for The Martin Moran Foundation. Never before have all thirteen of the Scottish Island Munros been attempted in a single non-stop push by running, cycling and swimming through the dramatic landscape of the North West Highlands. Munros are defined as any Scottish mountain over 914m in height, there are 282 Munros in total across Scotland and 13 of which lie on islands.
Alex will give an account of the journey, and its goal of raising funds for the Martin Moran foundation.
Read more about this achievement, and watch the film on Alex’s website. Perhaps book a place on one of his guided climbs as well!
I grew up amongst the wild mountains of the North West Highlands, Scotland. As soon as I could walk, I was out in the mountains with my father, British Mountain Guide, Martin Moran. Throughout my life, all of my free time has been spent building a solid skill-base of walking, skiing and climbing with my dad and friends across Europe, North America and the Himalaya.
After six years of training and assessments, I qualified as a Winter Mountaineering and Climbing Instructor (WMCI) in 2013 and have enjoyed a varied career ever since.
I have lived and worked as a geography teacher in Majorca and Costa Rica but my love for the mountains of home prevails. Now based in Scotland, I work in the mountains full-time helping people achieve their goals and become safer and more confident mountaineers and climbers.
I have had the pleasure of leading expeditions in the Indian Himalaya, taking clients on rock climbing trips in the UK and abroad, as well as winter adventures in Norway and Scotland.
Having developed my coaching and mentoring skills as a Mountain Instructor over the last decade, I am lucky enough to share and explore awe-inspiring landscapes with those who accept the challenge.
Irvine Butterfield
John Burdin has kindly let us reproduce an article he wrote about Irvine below.
A Tribute to Irvine Butterfield, by John Burdin, on behalf of The Munro Society (originally published in the Munro Scociety Newsletter August 2009 (Number 19)
The Munro Society (TMS) founded in April 2002 has already established a role for itself within the Scottish mountaineering scene. Irvine Butterfield was a prominent member of the group which came together in Perth in 2001 to discuss the possibility of forming such an organisation for those fortunate enough to complete ascents of all 284 mountains with summits of at least 3000ft in Scotland – the Munros.
The idea gathered momentum after a dinner in Pitlochry in 2001 to celebrate the centenary of A E Robertson’s completion as Munroist no.1. Irvine completed his round of the Munros in 1971 – becoming Munroist No.105. He actively chaired the Steering Committee formed to take the Group forward and plan the Inaugural Meeting at the Bonar Hall in Dundee on April 20th 2002. Irvine’s achievements were already legendary in Scotland (and beyond) not least being his acclaimed books “The High Mountains of Britain and Ireland” (1986), “The Magic of the Munros” (1999), and “The Call of the Corbetts” (2001). He was unanimously elected as our first President from 2002-04.
Early in his Presidency he described TMS as “a society in which we can all take an interest and pride as we take our first tentative steps to secure a permanent and worthwhile role in the realm of Scotland’s 3000ft peaks”. Irvine’s sterling performance over two years gave TMS the best possible start – his enthusiasm was boundless, his personal commitment phenomenal, his encyclopaedic knowledge and understanding of Scottish hills (including those who worked and played amongst them) was inspirational to all who worked closely with him during these critical early years and he had an apparently endless supply of entertaining stories.
A key strength in Irvine was the encouragement he gave to individual members, particularly those on the Executive Committee, to initiate and develop their own ideas and strategies. At virtually every committee meeting he would produce one or more papers which he had typed and copied, to illustrate whatever point he was raising -and always in a most professional manner.
Following his Presidency Irvine’s commitment to the Society went from strength to strength, as did his desire to ensure quality in all that he did on the Society’s behalf. His active ‘hands-on’ involvement, along with Lain Robertson, in the Glenquoich Estate’s footpath maintenance project on Gleouraich (which started in 2003) continued annually until his health deteriorated. He fully supported TMS commissioning Jim Closs to produce a video on Footpath Maintenance for use by clubs throughout Britain via the auspices of the MCofS and the BMA. This was followed by a series of TMS videos, made by Closs, on Early Munroists; the first involved Irvine interviewing Jim Cosgrove (Munroist no.56 and then 91) about some of his memorable days on the Scottish mountains. These experiences vividly captured aspects of the social history of mountaineering in Scotland -as did the next in the series when five other Munroists, (who ‘compleated’ between 1956 and 1968) were involved.
Then in 2008 Irvine himself featured in the third Early Munroists video – this will now enable future generations of mountaineers and TMS members to have a rare insight into what made Irvine so special to all who were privileged to know him well. He continued his 100% support of Society events and activities such as the Annual Dinner (despite increasingly poor health he was at Strathpeffer in October 2008) and Munro re-visit meetings from the first to Beinn Dorain (November 2003), to Torridon (July 2004), to Kintail (April 2005) where he was bitten by the warden’s dog on arrival! and to Ireland for a week in September 2006.
Other notable contributions that Irvine made included donating very considerable amounts of material to archives; representing the Society on various organisations such as MCofS, the Perthshire Alliance for the Real Cairngorms (PARC) and supporting links with RSPB/BTO Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage and the National Trust for Scotland; initiating and organising the very successful week-long exhibition “A Celebration of Mountains” at Blair Castle in October 2004 and again in November 2005 at the Dundee Mountain Film Festival; actively supporting the concept of a ‘health check’ on the state of the Munros at the start of the 21st century which quickly led to the Mountain Quality Indicator project – the first phase of which ran from 2003-09 (all of his inimitable reports will be preserved in our archives for future generations to ‘enjoy’); and participating in the 2007 heightings of Beinn Dearg and Foinaven (where he struggled a bit but made it to the summit!).
This tribute to Irvine, on behalf of all the members of the Society has to end with this acknowledgment that Irvine, born in Yorkshire (near Skipton), was from head to toe a true “Tyke” whose heart and soul were nevertheless totally committed to the beauty and welfare of the Scottish Highlands. His memory will live on in the hearts and minds of those of us privileged to have known him personally and in his writings, photography, and wide-ranging achievements to those in generations to come.