Weir's Way now available online

[Silkie]

http://video.stv.tv/bc/Scotland+on+TV/s ... -weirsway/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I think I must have died and gone to heaven!

[bilbo]

I think I must have died and gone to heaven!

In yer dreams, o hairy one!

[Mark]

http://video.stv.tv/bc/Scotland+on+TV/s ... -weirsway/

I think I must have died and gone to heaven!

Never heard of it, and really enjoyed it. Thanks.

Tragically it lead to a web search with has revealed the shocking news of Hazel McWitch's death. I'm gutted.

[Silkie]

Did you watch the Loch Lomond ones (Water, Wind and Fire) particularly parts 2 and 3?

[Mark]

Did you watch the Loch Lomond ones (Water, Wind and Fire) particularly parts 2 and 3?

Yes, he was talking to two old climbers & an ex Shipyard worker - I did a web search for the climbers but only found one - the Knight guy, I couldn't catch the name of the Yellow Jacket guy.

I've been watching it non-stop since I made the post. In fact I've got a headache from watching it.

Superb series. I love Tom's tone of voice, I love the way it's written and I love the camera work. I've even learned things.

[Silkie]

Those online are only a small selection of course. I don't remember if I ever saw them when first aired but for years they were a late-night filler on STV starting at midnight or later and became a must-see for me, whenever possible.

I suppose they were cheap to make but what delightful tv they were - and still are.

PS - The surname is not one I've heard but it sounds like Jock Nimlan or Nimalan

[penzephyr]

Jock Nimlin. My late father-in-law used to speak of him highly. (How appropriate that was!)

http://www.ernest-press.co.uk/thompson_fire.html

Alastair

[Silkie]

TFT Alastair.

[Telo]

I first met Jock Nimlin when I was still at school; he had been a well known climber and had put up a lot of very bold hard routes some 30 years earlier. If I remember correctly, he had also had a series of short radio programmes on the BBC Scottish Home Service - allegedly, he wrote the scripts while working as a crane driver on the Clyde (was it the Finnieston crane?). I don't recall any of them, but I suppose the content would have been about his favourite subjects - climbing, geology, Glasgow, and politics (he was a socialist and an ILPer).

He used to live down the Govan Road or Paisley Road West in the 60s, and I'd occasionally see him around. He wasn't rock climbing by then (as far as I know), but he could still stravaig about the hills at a great pace - great long lowping stride, and fast. I had the privilege of accompanying him up some of the Kintail hills. Despite my fitness of youth, and his heavy use of Capstan Full Strength (the ones in the brown packets), I really struggled to keep up with him. He was very very fast on the hill.

To say he was entertaining would be an understatement. He had a very funny dry sense of humour which he applied to his encyclopaedic knowledge of Scotland's history, its geology, its politics, its agriculture, its industry, its arts, and its people.

The last time our paths crossed was on the Glen Sannox going over to Brodick. Jock was on the boat, and I also bumped into the father of a friend of mine. Now my pal's dad was an active shop steward and semi-pro jazz trumpeter, so the two of them found that they had shared interests. Inevitably these were explored in the ship's bar, done in the habit of that generation, a half pint of beer and a half gill of whisky. Now, I could take a couple of pints of beer, but didn't touch whisky at all then. Needless to say, at the end of a 40 minute (or so) passage, they were both in fine fettle, but I was in a less than perfect condition to get my tent and climbing gear up Glen Rosa.

In 1969, I moved away from Scotland for some years, and lost touch with him, but, oddly enough, I later found out that, while living on Tyneside, I knew two of his cousins.

Jock was a fine man, very wise, with a great love of humanity. To me, a really heroic figure.

[Mark]

Thanks Shard and Penzephyr! That's really fascinating, both to know exactly who he was and to hear some first hand accounts of the guy. I'm very grateful.

[Rowana]

I was wondering if any of you climbing types remember a guy I used to work with in the mid 1960's in Dundee.

Davie Crabb was his name, and I seem to remember the BBC (i think) paying for him to go out on some anniversary climb of the matterhorn, or some other wee hill, to carry some of the filming gear up for them.

I'm not a climber as such myself, but I do enjoy a walk in the hills, but when it gets past the scrambling over rocks stage, I've had enough!