UKC

The Creagh Dhu Mountaineering Club has a very sad announcement to make. Tam McAulay died on Wednesday 20 September 2006 whilst on a walking holiday on the Isle of Rhum.

Full obituary:

http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=239

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: that`s a great obituary.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Yes - absolutely wonderful obituary. (Who wrote it?) Particularly loved:

'Tam loyally defended the working class values, leftward leaning politics and anarchistic attitude towards the establishment that the club was founded on.'

A person you wish you had known. RIP.

Mick

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: Great obituary. Sorry to all those that knew him.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Wonderful obituary indeed.

"Here's another right." What a great line.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

I met Tam on numerous occasions during MRT call outs and training excercises.
Even in the worst weather and in the middle of the night you could always count on Tam to keep the troops morale up with his infectious smile and great sense of humour. He will be sorely missed and my condolences to his family and to the members of the Arrochar MRT.

FYI - Tam was actually with a companion from the Strathclyde Police MRT at the time of the accident.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

A very nice obituary.

Someone who knew him remarked to me that it wasn't a bad way to go, quickly and among the Scottish hills.

In reply to Removed User:

Sounds like a terrific bloke.

Whoever wrote that piece, very well done, a wonderful tribute.

I knew Tam for nearly 30 years, yet in all the thousands of posts I have made on UKC, I can’t recall mentioning Tam by name. I shall have to rectify this. He was a master at the one liners.

One time coming out of Invermallie Bothy, we, about 15 of us, had a fire at the end of the loch on the shingles. Along came this person in a kilt, Burberry coat, a couple of dogs and a cromach.

He asked us “what we were doing?”
The reply was “Standing around this fire.”.

Next question was “Where have you been?”
The reply was “Invermallie.”

The final question was ”Where are you from?”
The reply was “Glasgow”.

At this point Tam asked ”And where are you from?”
The reply was “I’m from here.”

Tam then said “What, are you a shepherd?”
Cameron of Locheil’s face turned purple, shouted his dogs and walked off without a reply.

Norrie

In reply to Norrie Muir:


"Aye, something like that..." just might have saved the day.

Mick

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Wonderful obituary, sounds like he was a great bloke.
"Here's another right" - brilliant.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

A fitting obituary for a great character, by the sounds of it. Condolences to his family and friends.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

I am deeply saddened by the news. Great character and lovely person, first met Tam in 1975 when he led me and a mate up an icy Buchaille route.Our paths crossed a few other times over the years and he always had time for a crack.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Very sad news indeed. He was a real character.

RIP Tam the Bam.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Sad new indeed.

I only met him a couple of times but I will never forget him demonstrating to me (in his dry humourous way)how chalk was not neccessary to succeed on a chamonix valley 6c by throwing my chalk bag away, rubbing his hands in the dirt below the start of the route then proceeding to cruise the climb with style.

A lasting impression for me as a young climber!!

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

He sounds like the mental image I have of Norrie.....

Condolences to all who knew him, sounds like a real character.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: Having read the obituary for Tam my first impression was, 'Iwish I'd met the man, he sounds a right salt of the earth character'. It also got me to thinking what a privelege it is to be a member of the climbing community. Wha's like us!!!

Rest in peace Tam. I never met you but somehow feel I know you.

Gartmorn

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Anybody know if "Tam's Route" on Eagle Boulder, Dumbarton (near Zig Zag) was one of his? It would be good to make the connection between the route and the man if there was one.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com: Tam was one in a billion, I met Tam when i first got involved with the Club and he immediately struck me as a larger than life character. He was a hard man to win round as a new club member but his determination to continue the clubs strong traditions of climbing ability and style coupled with the "right attitude" towards the hills and weekending was paramount.
I have many hilarious memories of Tam and he made Billy Connolly look as humorous as Vladimir Putin. Ill really miss popping in for a brew at Tams for a blether and craick while watching the climbers on the cobbler through his telescope in his lounge.
All of us in the club have been robbed all to prematurely of a great friend, great club member and once in a lifetime character.

RIP Tam

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:
An amazing obituary for an amazing sounding bloke. Condolences to his family and friends.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

This is very sad news. I met him a few times in the early 90's. When he found out I worked in the Clach**g he referred to me as a "f*ckin wee shite".

Behind the wisecrack hardass persona I found a genuine enthusiast and like most of that Kingy crowd around then, encouraging, generous and a nice bloke. Condolences to his mates, there will be undoubthedly be a big Tam shaped hole in a lot of lives that are lucky to have known him.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Great obituary; really feel like you knew him.

RIP

jcm

In reply to Norrie Muir:

We had a wee session in The Dhoss with Tam and big John last year.......................we set off up the hill the next day and on our return the Dhoss was empty.

About an hour later there was a knock on the window and Tam's big smile.

"We got as far as Bridge Of Orchy" says Tam "And I says tae John...have you still got money in yer pocket?"
"Aye" says John.

"Why are we feckin' goin' home then?...........get the guitars oot boys and huv a wee wine!"

He'll be sadly missed by all in The Creag Dhont.

In reply to all:

a very fittng service for Tam on Saturday. Perhaps a surprise even to those who knew him well, was his range of talents reaching beyond the climbing community.

The hall was packed with people from all walks of life.

A rare man has passed on, but will never be forgotten.

Davie Paraffin Sanderson

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

A wonderful tribute to a unique man and a generous, kind cousin.
My brother and I are part of what is known to the family as the "Irish Mob", and we will attest to all Tam's virtues and also to his love of the mountains and hills around Glasgow.
When staying with Tam, we spent many glorious hours watching the deer on the Cobbler through his telescope, and had promised ourselves that one day we would climb the hills, and see them at first hand.
Sadly, this is now not to be.
He'll be sorely missed by his friends and cousins. RIP

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

I met Tam in the Kingshouse a few years ago and his humour was spot on including threatining to 'sort out' whoever it was who had the mobile phone that kept ringing. The patois kept coming all night. When we left i thought i had been at a comedy gig. A very open and pleasing man.

RIP Tam

Another Tam classic.

Young climber (OK it was me!) warming-up at Dumby. Doing some posing stretches that I'd seen in the latest mag.

Tam: What the f**k are you doing?

Me: Erm, erm, I'm warming-up.

Tam: Why don't you just build a f**king fire...

Thanks to the lads from the Creag Dhu for this warm and well-written obituary for my brother Tam. I also give my thanks for the many other kind and gracious posting on this site.
.
I am sorry to say that I find it regrettable that politics has reared its ugly head in this obituary, especially when the claims of his political orientation are so spectacularly wrong. Tam would be “ferr scunnered” as we say in Glasgow, by his posthumous endorsement of The Left!
The obituary is completely wrong when it writes "Tam loyally defended the working class values, leftward- leaning politics and anarchistic attitude towards the establishment that the club was founded on. He may have years ago, but he could not stand the decadence of the modern Left.
The Creag Dhu may have " leftward- leaning politics" but Tam certainly didn't: he grew out of them.

It would be far more accurate to say that he defended the working-class values of our parents, values which the modern left abhor--family, duty, cultural integrity, heterosexuality, manliness, self-reliance, etc. It is true that he had the willingness to help others unable to help themselves, which was the ideal that made The Left attractive to many, but he abhorred it’s modern transition to “forcing others to pony up for those unwilling to help themselves” or of giving a massive hand-out to those who landed on our shores uninvited. He loathed the Left’s obsession with telling us how to think.
Yes, he was “anarchic” in that he shared the dislike of snobs common to the Left , but that is a dislike by no means exclusive to the Left. Yes, h didn't give a tuppeny damn for anyone who held the notion that their birth, wealth or social pretensions obliged others to kow-tow to them, but Tam had long ago given up defending "leftward-leaning politics".
In fact, whenever we met he would launch into a vitriolic attack on the modern left, especially its victimology and political correctness. He positively loathed it. He was far too much his own man to succumb to the mind-numbing straight-jacket of PC--you couldn't make him do anything he didn't want to, and the PC brigade certainly failed in their attempts to make him think the way they wanted him to.
There wasn't a niche for him in any one political philosophy--like most people with any wisdom, he was a pragmatic pick'n' mix man. Like many others in Britain today, Tam had no faith in, and no respect for, politicians of any stripe.

I’m sorry to introduce a sour note, but I know what Tam believed in.
However, his politics were only part of the man.
He was a lad 'o mony airts and pairts, many of the better parts being concealed behind an abrasive façade.
Posted by his brother, George

In reply to George McAulay: "family,duty,cultural integrity,heterosexuality,manliness, self reliance,etc". He must have been some role model, and sorely missed in this day and age.

In reply to George McAulay: Reading this just makes me wish I'd met him even more!!!

Gartmorn

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:
What a shock.
I haven't seen Tam for years but when I did meet him it was never long before I was laughing.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:

Never met him but he sounds a top bloke to have had the company of.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:
Sorry to hear of Tams passing away. I used to look forward to meeting up wih him after cycling down to Dumbie after work at Yarrows for a bit of bouldering. After spending many goes at a particular problem he would come along and without changing out of his work boots would rub his hands in the soil and procede to climb the problem with ease. He used to amaze people with his ability to climb other problems in crappy old PA's (remember them?)until one day he divulged to me that he had them resold with this modern rubber - but I wouldn't surprised if this was just a windup as well. As others have already said he was great for a bit of crack and always looked on the bright side.

One of the original heros of the climbing scene in the west coast. He will be sorely missed.

H.

In reply to Mick Ryan - UKClimbing.com:
I got an email from Bruce Taylor today.

I was in Dibidil bothy wi Simone for the weekend, and there was a bottle of rum on the mantlepiece from Tams rucksack. There was a note from his mate who had been there saying what had happened. Its a horrible nasty wee gully with a very slippery water worn slab which slopes down to a drop into a narrow gully hundreds of feet deep which has a burn in it. Shite place to cross in the dry weather, must be nasty in spate, as it was when they were there. Had a dram on him anyway. Cheers Tam.

In reply to Colin Moody:
Talk about message in a bottle!

Funny how that message has got from Rhum to the Internet. Tam would have been tickled by that.

Davie Paraffin Sanderson

In reply to Colin Moody:

I may have introduced Tam to Dark Rum. Tam was a pint of Heavy man, when we were once in the Kingshouse’s Lounge and there was a new barperson, Tam changed to Dark Rum. It was after a couple of rounds and I was getting drunker than normal when Tam said to me, “When you get the next round in, get me a Dark Rum and clock the Barman.” As there was no optic for the Rum, the young barperson was pouring out Schooners of Rum.

Aye, Tam had an eye for an opportunity and it ended up another good night thanks to Tam.