Mountain Heritage Trust celebrates 20th anniversary

2020 marks 20 years since the Mountain Heritage Trust was founded - after an initial suggestion from a British Mountaineering Council ordinary member that more should be done to preserve mountain and climbing heritage. 


Since then we’ve shared some amazing stories and taken thousands of items into our care to preserve for and share with future generations.

Activities at our 2018 Chris Bonington exhibition, Keswick Museum


We are now responsible for caring for more than 100,000 items. These date from the early 20th century to the present day and cover rock climbing, mountaineering and indoor climbing. Collections range from items linked to everyday climbers and the development of the sport, equipment and clothing, to some of the biggest names in the business as well as art and literature collections.

A fashion student photographs leather climbing boots


For our 20th year we had planned to be on the road at events and festivals to celebrate our anniversary and share stories from the fantastic collections in our care.

Instead we’ll be sharing stories from our collections and history online with collections from every decade of the 20th century, and throwbacks to some of our best exhibitions and events from the past 20 years.


To begin these celebrations we’ve produced a short film (funded by The National Archives and produced by Land & Sky Media):





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