Memories of the golden age
He said: “He was a real pioneer and he ought to be honoured more.
“Glenshee and all these places started after he had been going.”
The current owner of Glencoe Mountain Resort also paid tribute to a hugely influential figure, saying Scotland’s snowsports industry was “deeply indebted to Philip Rankin”.
Andy Meldrum, of
Ski Scotland, added: “He was one of the individuals who had the vision to see that skiing could be a commercial operation in the Highlands, in particular on Meall a’ Bhùiridh where Glencoe opened for skiing just over 60 years ago.
“Since then four other resorts have opened – Cairngorm, Glenshee, The Lecht and Nevis Range.
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“They, together with Glencoe, now generate around £30m each year for the Scottish and UK economy, with much more of that spent in a wide range of local businesses than is spent at the ski resorts themselves.
“This revenue boost during winter and spring is hugely important to Scotland’s tourism industry.
“The whole country should therefore be grateful to Philip for his foresight and energy in making skiing happen at Glencoe so long ago.”
Scott Armstrong, VisitScotland regional partnerships director, said the organisation would support any recognition for Mr Rankin.
He added: “Philip Rankin’s impact on Glencoe, and skiing in Scotland more widely, has been immense and we would support any plans to recognise the legacy of his work.” ANGELA ANDERSON’S earliest memories are of the original ski tow at Glencoe.
Her father, Chris Lyon, an engineer at John Brown’s shipyard, had helped to build it and she remembers riding on it as a four-year-old.
“It was a single bar,” Angela recalls. “It had a really big kick, you were thrown in the air.”
The engineers and tradesmen who came from the Glasgow shipyards at weekends to ski worked hard at developing the tow and rectifying the “kick”.
“I remember Philip, he looks much the same as he looked then, quite an Air Force-y type face and a very droll, dry sense of humour,” she recalls.
“I can see him, his wife and their two dogs selling tickets, talking to people and running everything out of their wee office the size of a phone box.”
By the time she was seven, a chairlift had been added and Glencoe was becoming noticeably busier, even to a child.
“I remember there being lines and lines of cars up and down the road,” said Angela, now 61 and president of Glencoe Skiing Club. “Huge lines of folk queuing.”
More lifts and tows were added in the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, by which time interest in skiing was booming.
And in the last seven years, since Andy Meldrum took over, Glencoe’s gone from strength to strength.
Angela added: “It’s a very friendly place, there is a lot of camaraderie.”
No doubt helped by the fact that there are many children and children’s children of the original skiers still coming to visit or working at the resort.