Commemorating An Unusual Friendship
Scientist Collie and crofter Mackenzie were climbing companions
HE was the Danny Macaskill of his day – pioneering new routes on the jagged ridges and summits of the Cuillin of Skye, as well as breaking the social norms of the Victorian era.
John Mackenzie was a crofter on Skye who guided climbers from the upper classes. These included Norman Collie, a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh.
Despite the social divide, they developed a firm friendship and are buried side by side in the graveyard of Bracadale Free Church.
Now, a £500,000 fundraising project is under way to erect a statue of the pair at Sligachan, under the Cuillin mountains.
Hector Nicolson, local historian and a member of the Collie Mackenzie Sculpture Group, lives in Sconser, near Sligachan, where Mackenzie was born in 1856.
“Mackenzie was one of the first to climb many Cuillin peaks. In Sconser he got the nickname as a 10-year-old of an gobhar bheag meant the little goat.”
As a respected mountain guide in the area, a job he combined with work on the croft, he came to know Norman Collie, a rich scientist born in Cheshire. Despite their guide and client relationship, they developed a firm bond and were the first to complete many routes in the area.
Sgurr Mhic Choinnich was named after Mackenzie, while Collie’s Ledge on the mountain commemorates the scientist. The latter was used by Danny Macaskill in one of his daring mountain bike rides.
Hector says the friendship was unusual because of their different backgrounds. “It was very rare that a guide was even acknowledged to have been on these first climbs, far less to be named. It showed the respect that the clients had for Mackenzie.
“Mackenzie got recognised by the Alpine Club – they used to send him the Alpine Journal free of charge, in