Biography

Born in December 1912, Angus MacLellan was the eldest of the family of Lachlann Beag (son of Aonghais 'ic Alasdair) and Seonag, daughter of Ruaraidh mac Aonghais 'ic Ailein from Benbecula. He grew up in Tigharry and went to school in the village, where one teacher left a lasting impression on him, as he explained on BBC Radio nan Gàidheal, 18/07/1989:

"I remember when I was in school in Tigharry, and we were in the classroom. I was in the top class. We were belting out Ho Rò Mo Nighean Donn Bhòidheach, and our teacher wasn't enjoying it. She went around to the boys' line, until she was behind me. She put her hand on my shoulder and said 'Sssssssssssshhhhhhhhhh!' I stopped, and never sang a peep after that."

Angus then went to Bayhead School for three years, where he was struck by homesickness for the only time in his life:

"I got a bursary, and they made me stay down in Bayhead and I got homesick then. Other people were going home on bicycles to Tigharry and I was stuck there. I settled in, though, and I never got homesick again."

When he left school, he reluctantly went to help his father with the land and livestock. As he himself wrote:

"I began when I was very young, walking after the horses working the plough in spring, or cutting the corn with the scythe in autumn."

When he was 24, he left North Uist and went to Glasgow, where he discovered that employment opportunities weren't so plentiful. He got a job on a boat that was going to America.

Ris a' mheit gun d' rinn mi bargan
Gum falbhainn leis a sheòladh,
Air cuilean nan tonn garbha
Dam b' ainm an California.

He made three or four trips there before he went to London and, after a while, he worked for the Lighthouse Service around the English coast. Although he enjoyed that job very much, after five years or so he was looking for another job:

"I thought I would try to find another job which wouldn't involve me spending the rest of my life on rocky shores and small islands, and so I took a job as a clerk at the docks in London."

Ill health forced him to return to Uist, where he crofted with his brother Ruairidh and sister Raonaid.

Speaking about poetry on BBC Radio nan Gàidheal on 18/07/1989, Angus said:

"Sometimes it's like you're taking apart a ball of yarn that's been spun. It's inside you, and you have to get it out somehow. Sometimes it comes out very well, sometimes it doesn't. Only on the odd occasion do I have to go back to it."

Many of Angus's songs are sung today, for example: Eilean Uibhist Mo Rùin, which he composed, he thought, while on the Isles of Scilly; Deàrrsadh Gealaich air Loch Hòmhsta which he composed over two nights in bed at his house in Tigharry, "six quatrains last night and six more tonight" as he himself put it; he composed Bu Chaomh Leam Bhith Fuireach an Uibhist Bheag Lurach around 1937/38 in Glasgow. Angus's poetry was collected in the book Beagan Bàrdachd à Uibhist a Tuath edited and published by the North Uist Historical Society.

Angus died in 1995.

List of compositions

Chì mi Cleatrabhal Bhuam