Sandra Train, of Edinburgh, thought readers might be interested in this history of her paternal grandparents, Alex and Elizabeth Macdonald of 48 Dalhalvaig, Strath Halladale, on the anniversary of Alex’s "homecoming". Sandra, who was also brought up in the house, regularly visits her old home.
SOME TIME in the last decade of the 19th Century, a young man of Halladale, Alexander MacDonald, faced a choice: to stay and work on the croft at Dalhalvaig where he had been brought up from early childhood by his grandparents and an uncle, Colin, or to seek his fortune away from the strath.
Indeed there was no choice, as, with his uncle’s marriage in late middle age, Alex no longer felt comfortable in the old home.
It may also have been a young man’s desire to explore the world beyond the bounds of Duthaich Mhic Aoidh and Sutherland, that induced him to write to cousins in Canada and Patagonia.
From their replies, it appears that Alex would have been welcomed by both sets of relatives. His Canadian cousin advised him to come "before the St Lawrence freezes" and "be sure to bring a good dog". There was even the offer to pay the dog’s fare!
As well as these far-flung cousins, Alex had two aunts married in Caithness, one being the mother of the Canadian cousin whose wife was a local Scotscalder girl. He was a regular visit to his aunts’ homes, and in 1895 he went to stay in Scotscalder, while contemplating his future.
It was then that Cupid played his part when Alex met and fell in love with Elizabeth MacDonald, younger sister of his Canadian cousin’s wife. Her people were of Gaelic-speaking stock from further south and west, now settled in the Caithness uplands.
At this time The Highland Railway Company was widely advertising for men of "good character, physique and health" to apply for jobs as surfacemen, porters and pointsmen. A decision was made, and by October, 1895, Alex had applied to the company to work on the Highland Line.
His first job was as surfaceman between Scotscalder and Kildonan in the period from October, 1895 to April, 1896, when he received a telegram: "You had better go to Inverness by 8am to-morrow to take up your new duties." He was to be porter at Inverness with a weekly pay of 15/-!
No doubt, the separation of the young sweethearts by such a distance accelerated their decision to wed. Their marriage took place at Scotscalder on June 26, 1896.
Two years later, Alex was sent to Strathpeffer, where he was appointed pointsman at 17/- a week. In both Inverness and Strathpeffer, housing was provided for married employees, and it was here that their eldest sons – John, Alistair and Donald – took a life-long interest in engines and trains. Indeed the oldest sons would make their career in the railway, in Scotland and London.
In Strathpeffer, two further additions to the family were born, Colin and Margaret. The older children attended school at Fodderty, walking there and back.
But soon this settled lifestyle was to change, quite abruptly.
Alex’s now elderly uncle Colin in Halladale was widowed, and at first seemed to cope with the croft work and its demands, with the help of a young lad from Melness, Willie MacDonald (later of Lairg), who was to become a well-known piper.
However, it was not long before Colin was pleading in letters to Alex, wishing "that you come home and take over the croft."
Throughout autumn, 1911, these letters became more pressing. A decision to comply with his uncle’s wish must have been made in December, 1911, as a letter from The Highland Railway Company directed Alex "to go to Boat of Garten, there to take up duties until January, 1912, when you will demit your duties."
It cannot easily be imagined what such an upheaval to their lives such a move entailed.
But that was as nothing compared with the greater change affecting all their lives when, in mid-January 1912, they at last reached journey’s end by rail at Forsinard Station and thence by horse and trap to Dalhalvaig.
There would be no more engine-spotting or making pocket-money from the wealthy patrons of the Spa, whose luggage the older boys carried to the local hotels.
Perhaps Alex found the return easier than anticipated. Certainly there was plenty to occupy him on the croft and in the community, and Elizabeth was at least nearer her Caithness kin.
The older children were now just a short walk from the school, while the eldest found employment first as a pupil-teacher to shepherds’ families, then with the Railway Company in Thurso.
On February 13, 1914, the croft at 48, Dalhalvaig, was assigned by Colin MacDonald to Alex.
In the official document of assignation, Colin assigns the holding with stock to Alex which he accepts, recalling that "uncle had been my guardian from early childhood to manhood".
For Alex had been born in Glasgow, where his father, John Grant MacDonald, had gone to work in 1866. He had married a widow with a young family and, when he died of typhus in 1870, his widow, Isabella, was prevailed upon to bring young Alex north to his grandparents’ home at Halladale.
It is thought that he was very young, perhaps not five years old when this happened.
Isabella had to return to her family in Glasgow; the grandparents wished their son’s child to remain in his father’s old home, and so it was. Alex was never to see his mother again, but Elizabeth went to see her in Glasgow to show her their first-born son, John.
Colin MacDonald died in 1917, the same year that the youngest of Alex and Elizabeth’s children was born, Willie James. Of their six children, three were to marry into Halladale families – Donald married Minnie Ann Fraser, Trantlebeg; Colin married Jenny Murray, Dalhalvaig, and Margaret married William MacKenzie, Trantlemore.
Alex and Elizabeth celebrated their golden wedding in 1946. Their six children gave them 23 grandchildren, 55 great-grandchildren, with fourth and fifth generations still arriving!
Elizabeth died in 1949; Alex on their anniversary in 1953. Their third son, Donald, remained as crofter tenant in Dalhalvaig until his death in 1986.
