A FELL-RUNNER from Kendal has become only the second person ever to complete all 1,556 'Marilyn's across the British Isles.
Retired Eddie Dealtry, 66, celebrated the achievement with Rob Woodall, of Peterborough, earlier this month.
The Marilyns are hills in the UK and Ireland with a 150 metre (492ft) drop on all sides and are named after the famous screen icon and as a nod to the Scottish Munros.
Eddie Dealtry, of Kent Gate Place, climbed the last two remote sea stacks remaining on his list - the 196-metre (643ft) Stac An Armin and its neighbour, Stac Lee (564ft) - the highest in the UK.
The retired IT software developer has waited until February of this year to get the right conditions for an assault on the two sea stacks - which will represent the final hurdle for many intending to complete the Marilyns.
The two are part of six Marilyns located in the remote St Kilda archipelago, which was abandoned by its last remaining residents in 1930.
Their location - more than 40 miles out into the Atlantic off the coast of the Outer Hebrides and four miles from St Kilda itself - deters many people from completing the Marilyns due to the cost and difficulties with the weather and sea conditions.
Asked how it felt, Eddie paraphrased the famous quip of mountaineer Chris Bonington, who, when asked what he thought on the tops of mountains, replied: "How do I get down!"
Eddie has been ticking off around 70 Marilyns a year and committed to completing them all as far back as 1990, although technically he unknowingly completed his first one in 1968 when he climbed Snowdon.
"It just gets you out to places you probably wouldn't have visited," explained Eddie. "It makes you think that you're going to be an old man and will anyone ever get these two again.
"It wasn't until the next day at lunch on the phone to the wife that it started to sink in that I had been in this great place out in the Atlantic." "I'm a fell-runner first and foremost," said modest Eddie. "But I think I can pack in the climbing now."
Accompanying Eddie on the stacs was Denise and Richard McLellan, from Sutton Coldfield, with Denise having completed around 1,000 Marilyns and Richard 1,500. Richard took all of the photographs featured here.
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