| From: | United Kingdom 🇬🇧 |
It is with great sadness that I write to announce the death of Des Hannigan. He was a central figure in West Cornish climbing for over 40 years. He was in many ways a polymath as a writer, poet, journalist and climber. He wrote and/or edited 7 guidebooks to the area over 30 years and was a great help to me when I wrote the 1984 West Penwith guide. His first contact with climbing in Cornwall was in the 1960s before as he said he 'ran away to sea' finally becoming a trawler skipper.
His exploits can be seen in the trilogy of short books in the brilliant The Almost Island series. He was given his first opportunity in journalism by Toni Carver of the St Ives Times and Echo to whom he was eternally grateful. He wrote guides for Lonely Planet and AA Publishing and contributed to local newspapers and the Associated Press.
The contacts he made through this with key members of the National Trust and RSPB enabled him to diplomatically and quietly sort out access issues. He was also a gifted poet and was highly acclaimed on a regional level.
As a climbing companion he was second to none with a seemingly endless store of anecdotes of his various lives and an encyclopaedic knowledge of unclimbed rock. His contribution to new routes in the area was huge and with characters such as Dennis Bateman he fruitfully pioneered in quiet and remote areas.
He was a key figure in the anti bolting campaign in the 1990s and 2000s and was a formidable advocate against bolting. In the 1960s he was a key figure in the area's folk music scene and he admitted to me once he had 2 songs in the Cecil Sharp folk Archives.
His passing will be felt by many in the South West because he was a very warm and generous person both with time and encouragement but mostly for his humour and integrity. I am honoured to call him a friend as will many others as we grieve for a real larger than life figure. [1]
[1] https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/rock_talk/des_hannigan-777326