For a century or so after climbers started using ropes for safety they put the rope over their shoulders or wrapped it around their waists to belay/anchor each other. This could be a pretty painful process if things went wrong – burnt hands, burnt backs and climbers letting go of their mates when they shouldn’t have. The earliest form of ‘mechanical belay’ was simply a link from a chain roughly the right size to cater for the rope, commercial versions came along very quickly with a host of variations on the theme, many of which we have elsewhere in the collection. The Wild Country version we have here in the collection is a fairly early one – circa 1970/75 – and like many other versions, it could also be used for abseiling. This one caters for two different diameter ropes, 9mm and 11mm, with two different sized holes accordingly. Ian Sykes, one time owner of Nevisport in Fort William, kindly donated this one and if you want to know a lot more about belay devices, check out the Vertical Museum by Gary Storrick – mind boggling.