Hughes makes history with Everest climb

From our archives 5 years ago

A WOMAN has made history by becoming the youngest British climber to scale Mount Everest from both sides. Mollie Hughes, 26, from Edinburgh, reached the summit from the north side yesterday. Her feat also makes the climber the youngest European woman and the first British woman to scale the peak from both the north and south sides. In temperatures as low as -40C, Ms Hughes reached the summit at 1.14am GMT with climbing partner Jon Gupta. She hopes to raise more than £8,000 for Cancer Research UK, £1 for every metre climbed.

10 years ago

HEARTFELT tributes were paid last night to beloved artist, writer and sculptor George Wyllie, who has died at the age of 90. Friends, artists and admirers of the creator of the Straw Locomotive, the Running Clock and the Paper Boat – famous artworks that combined humour, wry social comment and a sense of the spectacular – praised his unique and “fearless” talents. Wyllie, whose life and work is being celebrated in a year-long festival, died in Inverclyde Royal Hospital in

Greenock. Louise Wyllie, his elder daughter, said: “He really did live a life less ordinary.”

25 years ago

THE Galloway town of Wigtown has been selected from among six hopefuls to become Scotland’s first “Book Town”, which it is estimated could bring an extra 50,000 visitors each year to the area. Wigtown’s application was assessed along with those from Dalmellington, Dunblane, Gatehouse of Fleet, Moffat, and Strathaven by representatives of Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Tourist Board, and Strathclyde University’s tourism research unit. Experts from the three most successful book towns in Europe, Hay-on-wye in Wales, Redu in Belgium and Bredvoord in Holland, also helped make the selection. Wigtown’s success was welcomed in the area yesterday. Scottish Tourist Board spokesman Sandy Dear said it was optimistic book-town status would attract visitors from across Europe.

50 years ago

SCOTLAND, the last major relatively unspoiled area of the British Isles, was going to be of vital importance to future life in Britain as a whole, Magnus Magnusson, the television personality, said yesterday in Edinburgh. He was launching an appeal for £91,000 by the Scottish Wildlife Trust for the purchase of new reserves, the opening of a new visitor and education centre at Loch of Lowes, Perthshire, and for the establishment of an endowment fund to provide for the acquisition and management of further reserves. Mr Magnusson said there was a danger of complacency to the preservation of the environment if, as was likely, Scotland were to become a national playground.

100 years ago

THE Select Committee of the House of Lords, which is considering the Ayr Electricity Bill, met again today – when further evidence was given by Mr AW Tait, civil engineer, who acted in an advisory capacity to the Corporation of Ayr in connection with the scheme, the purpose of which is to augment the existing supply of electricity at Ayr by the utilisation of the waters of Loch Doon. The cost of the scheme is estimated at £220,000. The raising of the dam at Loch Doon from 5 feet to 10 feet, Mr Tait said in reply to Mr Tyldesley Jones, KC, who is appearing with Mr HP Macmillan, KC, for the promoters, would result in an increased cost in construction of about £11,500.