Loch Ness climber Richard Frere's 1938 book looks to inspire new generation
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The daughter of an adventurous Loch Ness climbing pioneer hopes the re-publication of her late father's book can help inspire a new generation.
Richard Frere – author of naturalist Gavin Maxwell's biography, Maxwell’s Ghost – published his first book describing climbs around Loch Ness in 1938.
Richard attended Inverness Royal Academy and formed the Highland Mountaineering Club with his classmates in the 1930s as well as the Inverness section of the Junior Mountaineering Club of Scotland, with his father Harold Frere as president.
Their climbs, including many first routes on local crags, were described in the book, Rock Climbs, published when Richard was just 16. He went on to become a well-known writer, whose books include Thoughts of a Mountaineer, In Symphony Austere, Loch Ness, Beyond the Highland Line and Maxwell’s Ghost, a personal biography of his time as close friend and business manager for the "Ring of Bright Water" naturalist Gavin Maxwell.
Jane, who still lives in the family home in Drumnadrochit, said the idea to republish the book came from Peter Wright, the nephew of her father's close friend and climbing companion Kenneth Robertson.
These guys were true pioneers. They were 14, 15, 16 years old, going off up to rocks with their hemp ropes and nothing else.
Richard and Kenneth were credited with the first ascent of the Savage Slit, which they named in 1939 and has become a legendary route for climbers in Coire an Lochain in the Cairngorms.
Jane admits, slightly embarrassed, that the first time she read Rock Climbs was during Covid when the idea to republish the book was being formulated.
"I never turned into a big rock climber but I found it an absolutely intriguing book," she said.
"What was amazing was, given where we are today with the rock climbing and mountaineering industry, that these guys, who were very, very young, were true pioneers. If you actually think about them, they were 14, 15, 16 years old, going off up to rocks with their hemp ropes and nothing else.
"When you think of our risk aversion today, and how little young people can do because of that, it’s absolutely incredible. Of course there were no mobile phones either – it’s almost like we’ve forgotten already our lives before the mobile phone and how completely different that was because you were then so out of touch."
The new re-publication, which is set to be launched on Thursday at an event at Inverness library, includes additional commentary by editors Peter and Kenneth Wright, who outline the context of the time when Richard Frere, with his close friend Kenneth Robertson and others, ventured into the hills and achieved some remarkable climbing feats.
The new edition also includes a chapter by Jane herself, an artist who designed and created a linocut print for the cover. In her contribution the 63-year-old recalls early childhood memories of her father taking her into the hills, often climbing nearby Meall Fuar-mhonaidh or crossing Loch Ness in a small dinghy to venture onto the hills on the south side. She also remembers time spent with her father to Sandaig and later Eilean Ban visiting Gavin Maxwell.
She describes her father's writing style as "beautiful," adding: "My father wrote with a particularly poetic style and there’s a real spiritual and poetic quality about his writing. So even though he was a 'technician' on the rocks – in that he was very precise – it also reads a bit like a thriller!
"I was reading it thinking, 'my god, he’s so close to a fall here', so you get a sense of the exposure, of the height, of the elements that he’s climbing in."
As a lifelong resident of the Loch Ness-side village, Jane is delighted that the focus of the book is truly local, and she's intrigued by the changes that have happened over the years, despite a continuing obsession with the monster.
She added: "What’s wonderful about this is that it’s from an area around Loch Ness, so it’s very local. But our focus still seems to be so much in the centre of the loch and its extinct creature!
"Whereas this is going up onto the sides, onto what’s flanking the loch sides, and what I hope with this – as an artist and as a very keen rewilder or ecological restorer – I think it’s so important that we really start looking at nature.
"So this publication is a chance to look up there and ask what’s really happening up there above the A82 – looking up onto the crag, up into nature, up into the trees.
"What would be very interesting is for young climbers – I’d like to throw them the baton and see if there’s anybody who would be keen to go and retrace my father’s footsteps and see how the topography has changed, and how the nature has changed. I think that in itself could be a very interesting exercise that might come out of this."
The newly re-published edition of the book, Rock Climbs by Richard Frere, will be launched on Thursday, April 27 – the anniversary of his death in 1999 – at an event with the celebrated writer and climber Chris Townsend, hillwalking ambassador for the British Mountaineering Council, as guest of honour.
Proceeds from the publication will go to Trees for Life, where Jane has established a special grove in memory of her father. Contributions can be made to this online at: https://treesforlife.org.uk/groves/429806/
The charity has just launched its Dundreggan Rewilding Centre eight miles from Loch Ness, off the A887 road west of Invermoriston.
The book launch event at Inverness library takes place on Thursday at 5.30pm.
