Maude Tiso, right, and chief executive Chris Tiso, second from left, join Mark Beaumont and Polly Murray at the boot cairn. Photo: Colin Hattersley

An outdoor retailer created a new mountain to mark its 50th anniversary.

Leith-based Tiso’s boot mountain was stacked up on Calton Hill in Edinburgh to celebrate the company’s half-centenary.

Its co-founder Maude Tiso joined her son Chris on the boot-cairn along with Scotland’s first female Everest summiteer Polly Murray and adventurer Mark Beaumont.

A company spokesperson said: “If all the footwear that Tiso customers have bought over the past 50 years was lined up, it would reach the summit of all the Scottish munros and beyond.

“To mark this milestone anniversary, Tiso recruited adventurers Mark Beaumont and Polly Murray along with Guy Grieve, the ‘Alaskan hermit’ and author of Call of the Wild who have just completed a sell-out tour across Scotland for Tiso.

“Billed Tiso’s Spirit of Adventure series, four lecture events were held throughout September with more than 1,000 attendees regaled by the very individual and compelling tales and experiences of each adventurer who has been sponsored by Tiso during their careers.”

The retailer, which now has 11 stores throughout Scotland, England and Northern Ireland, was founded when experienced mountaineer Graham Tiso met Maude, who had just returned from working and climbing in Norway.

They began trading in 1962 from the back room of a boat shop until they acquired their first shop in Rodney Street, Edinburgh later that year.

The Leith building was opened in 1974 and the company has continued to expand.

Graham Tiso was a member of the Scottish Mountaineering Club and was instrumental in the setting up of the Scottish Mountaineering Trust.