Biography

Alasdair MacLeod was born in Scalpay in September 1934 and was the seventh child of Kenneth John and Margaret Flora. He attended Scalpay School, and after leaving school went to Ferranti in Edinburgh to train in electrical engineering. He was there until he joined the Air Force in 1957, where he spent two years in England. He returned to Edinburgh, but went back to Scalpay in 1959, where he made his living installing and repairing electrical equipment.

John, his brother, had bought a fishing boat beforehand, and Alasdair went to work with him in 1961. At that time there were grants and loans available from the Highlands and Islands Development Board to buy larger fishing vessels, though you needed to study and sit an exam in order to get a skipper's ticket. Alasdair earned his in 1965. They bought a new boat which they named An Rìbhinn Donn and after a while they bought another. At that time people came home from the mainland with their young families, and the island became a very prosperous place to live. The fishing industry gradually began to decline, and the second Rìbhinn Donn was sold in 1989.

Alasdair married Angusina MacSween in 1971, and they have five children. When he stopped fishing he went back to his old trade, but also worked at Gaelic Seafoods, skippering one of their boats and taking part in salmon processing. They were known as Stolt Sea Farms when Marine Harvest took them over in 2005, and salmon processing at the Scalpay factory ceased. Alasdair retired at that point.

He always enjoyed singing, particularly songs from Scalpay, and love songs he heard from his mother. He had a great interest in psalm singing too, though he was not an official precentor.

We are indebted to Morag MacLeod, Alasdair's sister, for this information.