Some of the instructors from Glenmore Lodge had been out for 20 hours so, in the darkness, the dead were left on the mountain to be brought down the next day. Aftermath A memorial service to the victims was held at Insh parish church on 28 November 1971. The Secretary of State for Scotland was asked about the Cairngorms Disaster in parliament and there was a suggestion that all local authorities should follow the lead recently set by Edinburgh Education Authority and ban school expeditions from mountaineering in winter. At the fatal accident inquiry held in Banff in February 1972, Adam Watson was the chief expert witness for the Crown. It emerged that the consent form issued to parents did not say that winter mountaineering was involved. Also, only one of the parents had been told the outing was going to be to the Cairngorms. The inquiry reported that the deaths had been due to cold and exposure. It recommended there should be special regard for fitness and training, parents should be given fuller information about outdoor activities, parties should be led by fully qualified instructors and accompanied by certified teachers, suitable locations for summer and winter expeditions should be identified in consultation with mountaineering organisations, experts should advise on whether high-level shelters should be removed, the mountain rescue teams were praised and consideration should be given to supporting the teams financially and generally, following any future disaster there should be closer liaison between authorities and parents. The jury did not want to discourage future adventurous outdoor activities. The advocate for the parents suggested that the overall leader of the expedition and the principal of Lagganlia should be found at fault, but the inquiry did not make any finding of fault. The recommendation concerning the possible removal of high-level shelters was to become a cause of major disagreement. Traditional "bothies" were built for stalkers and gamekeepers and were in the valleys. The shelters being questioned were modern ones built high up on the plateau. The argument to keep them was that any shelter in an emergency was better than none, the opinion of Cairngorm MRT, Banffshire County Council and local estate owners. However, the Braemar MRT, most mountaineering bodies, the Chief Constable of police and Adam Watson thought that they should be removed. More and more experts and politicians became involved, and in July 1973, the Secretary of State for