Weir - Glasgow Libraries Online Library

The Tom Weir Collection

A collection of mountaineering journals and an extensive archive of photographic negatives taken by leading Scottish climber, naturalist, writer, photographer and broadcaster Tom Weir.

About Tom Weir

insert description — A statue of Tom Weir was unveiled on the eastern shore of Loch Lomond in 2014. (Sheila1988, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International, via Wikimedia Commons)

Tom Weir (1914-2006) the well-known Scottish broadcaster, author, climber and naturalist was born in Springburn, Glasgow. His father, who was called up during the First Word War, was killed fighting in Mesopotamia in 1916. His mother worked as a carriage-painter at Springburn locomotive works and was left to bring up three children on her own.

Tom’s sister, Molly, became a well-known radio and television actress. Much to his mother’s disapproval, he left school at the age of 14, and after a series of fairly menial jobs, got work during the potato harvest on a farm on the island of Arran. It was here he developed a passion for the outdoors and when he returned to Glasgow he began writing about the Scottish landscape for newspapers and magazines.

Weir would often say that the 1930s were the great age of "stravaiging" - people in their thousands migrating out of Glasgow each weekend on foot, by bicycle, bus or train, to Loch Lomond or the Trossachs. During the Second World War he served with the Royal Artillery, although he never saw action, and with the return of peace he worked for the Ordnance Survey.

In 1950, Weir was a member of the first post-war Himalayan expedition and two years later was one of the first mountaineers to explore the hitherto closed ranges of Nepal, east of Katmandu. He also served as President of The Scottish Mountaineering Club. The collection includes volumes of The Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal, Scottish Mountaineering Club Guide, The Himalayan Journal, The Scottish Mountaineering Club Journal and The Alpine Journal.

Tom Weir is perhaps best known for his series for Scottish Television, Weir's Way, broadcast between 1976 and 1987, for which he won the STV Personality of the Year Award in 1978. Usually clad in his trademark Fair Isle jumper and red bobble hat, he travelled throughout Scotland, documenting the landscape and the changing way of life, especially in remote parts of the country.

He married Rhona Gibson in 1959 and they made their home in Gartocharn, Stirlingshire where he lived until his death.

To mark the centenary of his birth, a statue of the climber and broadcaster was unveiled at Balmaha on the shores of Loch Lomond.

About the collection

A collection of mountaineering journals and an extensive archive of photographic negatives taken by leading Scottish climber, naturalist, writer, photographer and broadcaster Tom Weir. The illustrations reflect Tom Weir's life and interests and includes views of many places in Scotland, but with a particular emphasis on the Central and Western Highlands.

The collection was donated to The Mitchell Library by Tom Weir in 2003.