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Next race Sat 9th July 2016 at 3pm Entry fee for non Carnethy members: £5 on day or £4 online (not open yet) Roll of Honour Sub 52 Min Runs Female Sub 70 Min Runs |
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Course
Records: |
Race Map Results of all Glamaig races here |
The race
is organised by Carnethy
Hill Running Club, contact: |
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Glamaig has been described as "one of the toughest races in Scottish hill-running" and although it is classed a short Category A race we always insist that all competitors must wear or carry windproof body cover. |
Race History |
David Shepherd
Memorial Glamaig Hill Race Norman Collie first visited Skye in 1886
when most Alpine mountaineers considered
the British mountains hardly worthy of
their attention. From then until
his death in the Sligachan Inn in 1942
the island was his virtual and spiritual
home. It is notable that as well
as being Collie’s supporter, the Sligachan
Inn has been the single sponsor of the
David Shepherd Memorial Glamaig Hill Race
from its inception to date and so has been
our spiritual home too. Collie had
a distinguished career as a chemist and
biochemist at University College London,
but the mountains were his first and last
love. With John Mackenzie of Sconsor
he embarked on an exploration of the Cuillins
which revealed the wild inaccuracies of
the 1885 one inch Ordnance Survey map. Following
the Pilkington brothers' first ascent of
the Inaccessible Pinnacle in 1880 by its
longer east ridge, Collie and Mackenzie
climbed the west ridge in 1888. The estate owner, McLeod of McLeod, heard of an extraordinary run which Harkabir Thapa had done from the Sligachan to the summit of Glamaig and back in one and a quarter hours. He refused to believe it and had a heated argument with some local ghillies (who presumably had witnessed the ascent). Bruce offered to resolve the dispute and simply asked Harkabir to do it again. He did, and knocked twenty minutes off the previously alleged one and a quarter hours. It is recorded that he did it in bare feet, which seems implausible. Surely a sensible Gurkha who had already explored the local hills would have worn sandals? Climbers of the 1930s were familiar with
Collie commuting between the Sligachan
and other parts of the island in the yellow
Sligachan Rolls Royce. In October
1942 at the age of 83, Collie fell and
received a drenching while fishing in Loch
Storr. This led to rapid deterioration
of his health and he died a few months
later. He is buried in Struan Free
Presbyterian churchyard alongside John
Mackenzie (in fact the graves are aligned
astern, probably in recognition of their
climbing relationship). It is a delightful
spot with views across to the Cuillins. The
place is worth a pilgrimage on a summer
evening. In 1995 a Gurkha team took part in the race with a young Dillikumar Rai winning first place whilst the Ghurkhas were the fastest team. The race record is now a staggering 44 mins 27secs set by Findlay Wild in 2012, narrowly beating the previous 15 year old record of 44mins 41secs set by Mark Rigby in 1997 (wearing shoes!), who descended the 2,500 ft from the summit to the hotel in approximately 13 mins (a descent time that was equalled by Brian Marshall in winning the 2005 race). Brian Marshall has dominated the race in recent years and by 2011 had won the race 9 years in a row (2003-2011), coming 2nd in 2012 but still taking the V40 record. Tricia Calder's 1990 24 year old women’s record of 56mins10secs remains unbeaten. In 2014, a special
surprise - the return
of Dilli Rai! Now a Captain,
currently serving at the Royal Military
Academy, Sandhurst. Dilli is returning
with no ambitions of winning but simply
of reaching the top and raising funds
for the Ghurkha Welfare Trust. Bibliography: "Norman Collie, A Life
in Two Worlds" Christine Mill, Aberdeen
University Press. |
Post race, 2012 |
Carnethy Hill Running Club is a company limited by guarantee incorporated in Scotland with registered number SC492072 and having its registered office at 25a Stafford Street, Edinburgh, EH3 7BJ |