Des Hannigan

I thought I would write a short note about my old friend Des Hannigan; rock climber, poet, writer, raconteur and fishing boat skipper, who has sadly passed away after a long struggle against ill health. I shared many a climb with him over the years. Although Des was not a member of the Rucksack Club (indeed, Des had a somewhat Groucho Marxian attitude towards clubs), anyone who has climbed in West Cornwall during the last thirty years or so will almost certainly have used one of his excellent guidebooks (some may even have met him). In the 1980s he was at the forefront of the successful fight against the placement of bolts on Cornish rock. After giving up fishing for a living, Des became a successful writer and it was this and his love of the Cornish cliffs that led him into taking on the unenviable task of updating and essentially rewriting the Climbers Club guidebooks to West Penwith (Bosigran and Chair Ladder). Des was of Scots/Irish descent, but lived for the great majority of his life in west Cornwall. He leaves his wife Pauline and sons Tim and Dominic. He will be greatly missed.

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