John Norman Collie has been described as one of the four greatest mountaineers of his time. He is regarded as a pioneering mountaineer of the Cuillin on Skye and is recognised as a Skye hero. Together with John Mackenzie, Collie was the first to climb the unique pinnacle rock – the Cioch; the mountains of Skye were said to have ‘held his affection first and last.’ He also climbed extensively in the Canadian Rockies and in 1897 organised the first expedition by British climbers. This drawing depicts Collie (far left) on an ascent of Sgurr Alasdair, the highest peak on Skye, with three climbing companions in August 1896; details of the occasion are recorded as an inscription on the drawing: the professor saving his party, weather – southerly breezes, fresh occasional showers.

Collie's obituary in The Alpine Journal (Collie was president of The Alpine Club, the world's first mountaineering club, 1902-22) included the following tribute: “Norman Collie was all but the last survivor of a group of great mountaineers who followed upon the first Alpine pioneers and prophets, carried climbing into a score of other countries and ranges, and by their feats and writings stimulated a vast increase in the mountain following."