14 Facts About Norman Heathcote

John Norman Heathcote was a British author, watercolourist and photographer, who wrote the book St Kilda, published in 1900, about the Scottish Hebridean archipelago of St Kilda.

Norman Heathcote was the second child and eldest son of John Moyer Heathcote and Louisa Cecilia MacLeod who married in 1860.

Norman Heathcote's father was a barrister and distinguished amateur player of real tennis.

Norman Heathcote's mother was the eldest child of Norman Macleod, 25th chief of Clan Macleod.

Norman Heathcote was born in 1863 and attended Eton College and then Trinity College, Cambridge from 1882, where he took a BA degree in 1885.

Norman Heathcote inherited the lordship of the manor of Steeple Gidding which he sold to a Mr Tower in 1915.

In 1898 and again in 1899 Norman Heathcote visited the archipelago with his sister, Evelyn.

Norman Heathcote went on to write a book about the islands which was published in London by Longmans, Green in 1900 and reprinted in 1985.

Norman Heathcote was the first to record several bird species on the islands.

Norman Heathcote wrote that Stac Lee was "not a difficult climb" and that, before Evelyn, two other women had reached the summit.

Norman Heathcote considered the most difficult stack to climb was Stac Biorach, saying that Richard Manliffe Barrington was the only non-St Kildan to have climbed it.

Norman Heathcote published a paper "A Map of St Kilda" in the Geographical Journal of 1900 describing his surveying methods in producing the map that was included in the St Kilda book.

Norman Heathcote gave details of climbing Stac Lee saying it was "comparatively easy" although getting ashore onto the stack was "a most appalling undertaking" involving jumping ashore and climbing an overhanging cliff covered in slippery seaweed to a stanchion twenty feet above sea level.

Norman Heathcote recommended taking off boots and climbing in socks.