Funeral of mountain pioneer

The funeral service will take place this week of a leading mountaineer who was instrumental in establishing the right to roam in Scotland.

Alan Blackshaw was a past president of both the British Mountaineering Council and the Alpine Club, whose influence was felt both at home and abroad.

Mr Blackshaw, who had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, was also a leading light in the Union Internationale des Associations d'Alpinisme, the worldwide body representing mountaineers.

He died aged 78 on 4 August in Inverness.

A fierce advocate of access and conservation, Mr Blackshaw played a key part in the introduction of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act in 2003, which gives the public access the the countrysidem unequalled elsewhere in Britain.

He questioned the financial basis for the controversial Cairn Gorm funicular railway and advocated less intrusive skiing developments in the Cairngorms.

The Liverpool-born, former high-ranking civil servant served in the Royal Marine Commandos after gaining a modern history degree at Wadham College, Oxford. He will be remembered by many as the author of the Penguin handbook Mountaineering: from Hillwalking to Alpine Climbing and as editor of the Alpine Journal.

Dave Morris, director of Ramblers Scotland, to which Mr Blackshaw was an adviser, said: "Alan Blackshaw was an outstanding influence, over many decades, in the development of mountaineering both within the UK and further afield and, within Scotland, was a key figure in many access and conservation issues."

Mr Blackshaw leaves a widow, Elspeth, and a son and three daughters.