Harry Mackay and his wife Liz, who moved to Bettyhill from Janetstown eight years ago, quickly became fully integrated members of the North Coast community.
THE life of David Alexander, of Culrain, who died at 77 after a short illness, was remembered with laughter and tears by his family, friends and neighbours at a service in Inverness.
THE death of Mrs Joan (Johannie) Ross of Clais Buidhe, Skerray, in Dunbar Hospital, Thurso, on the morning of Thursday, 13 May, following a short illness, was deeply felt by the small close church family and the wider community within Skerray and Tongue.
ANDREW McCall was born in Lochinver in 1922, the son of Peter McCall and Henrietta McIver. Having been badly wounded on the Somme in 1916 during the Great War, Peter McCall was invalided out of the army in 1917.
THE church family within the Presbytery of Lairg and Bonar were well represented in the large turnout at the service of loving remembrance and celebration of the life of Kitty Murray, held in Migdale Free Church on Friday 12 March.
THE entire North Sutherland community, and family and friends much farther afield, was shocked and stunned to learn, on the wintry morning of 2 February, of the sudden and untimely death of David Bowes of Skerray, in an extraordinary single vehicle accident on the Kyle of Tongue Causeway.
DAVID Morrison Sutherland was born at the family croft cottage in Lerin, Durness, on December 22, 1943, the second son and youngest of three children of William and Kate Sutherland.
DON Morrison was born at Post Office House, Durness, on March 31, 1942, the elder son of Willie and Bella Morrison. Always noted for his sense of humour, Don used to joke that he had only missed being an April Fool's Day baby by 10 minutes.
WITH the recent passing of Connie Lawrie (nee McNaughton) of Savalbeg Farm, Lairg, the Highlands has lost one of its best known and respected Highland cattle breeders.
GORDIE Matheson was a very good friend of mine, but then dozens of folk could say the same thing, and with good cause. So let us start at the beginning.
AN article in the "Shooting Times" of 22 March 1979 about a mysterious big cat which had been attacking sheep in the Skerray area made reference to a Mr. T.D. Crow who had been out hunting the feline predator.
SKERRAY Free Church was crowded on Saturday 21st November for the funeral of Miss Catherine Mackay of the Old Post Office, 26 Achtoty, who passed away suddenly on 17th November at the home she had shared for most of her adult life with her younger sister, Annie.
PHYLLIS, as everyone knew her, was born Philomena Behan in Inverness on the 27th of January 1931 but spent most of her life in Bettyhill, having moved here, aged 15, to work in the Bettyhill Hotel.
BERT and I arrived in Brora about the same time in the late 1940s, in my case a forced homecoming for health reasons and he to his first post-war job in the Home Office radio station – a very different life from being a WOp/AG (wireless operator/air gunner) in the RAF.
BLANCHE Sinclair (née Rossetter), lately of Seaforth House in Golspie, passed away on 8th September 2009 at the Lawson Memorial Hospital after a short illness.
ALICK John Mackay of Braehead, Swordly, Bettyhill, was an enthusiast about everything he was associated with, whether in his long working life, his crofting, his passion for football or the many interests which made him the character he was.
ELSPETH Mary Udvarhelyi, second daughter of the late Ian M and Ruth Campbell of Balblair, Bonar Bridge, died recently in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, at the age of 79 years.
NINETY-nine years ago, in Tain, Donald Sutherland of Inchcape married Jessie Ross. In 1911 they had a son, Neil. Over the next decade they would have four more children, all girls, of whom the youngest, Elsie, was born in 1921.
CHRISTINA Mackay, or Teen as she was always known, was born at 74 Farr on 22nd March 1922, fifth of the six children of John Mackay, a fisherman who worked out of Granton on the River Forth, then an important deep sea port, and his wife Henrietta.
AMY Payne, of 8 Johnstone Crescent, Brora, third of the four children of Ken and Sandra Payne, was born in Raigmore Hospital on 11th September, 1985, and died there on 9th April 2009.
THE parish of Skerray has been saddened over the last 40 days by the loss of three of its senior residents, all the more so in the township of Tubegskerra where two of them had their homes.
JANET Elizabeth O'Brien (née Mackay) was born on 21st July 1918 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, then a thriving industrial city of half a million people and chief centre of the US steel industry.
THE passing of William Robert Mackenzie on the morning of 17th March occurred just two months short of his 89th year, following an illness borne with great fortitude and acceptance.
BETTYHILL Free Church was filled on Thursday 19th February for the funeral of Gordon Mackay of Cnocard, Bettyhill, who passed away in Caithness General Hospital on Sunday 15th, aged 90.
THE parish of Rogart was gathering to pay its final respects to William Grant of Rowallen, Pittentrail, when the news came through of the sudden passing of Donald MacKay at his home at 59 Culdrain, during the night of 30th December.
MEMBERS of his extended family and friends were saddened by the death in The Meadows care home, Dornoch, of John Mace, the Old Police Station, Gower Street, Brora, after several years of declining health borne with much courage and dignity. He was 84.
THE working life of a Highland Council roads department mechanic is not always an easy one. All sorts of difficulties present themselves which do not usually come the way of those whose lives revolve round cars, engines, and the like.
MONDAY, 3rd November was a calm, sunny day in Bettyhill. The late autumn rays slanted down, bringing that special quality of light known only to our northern latitudes.
CATHERINE McDonough entered the world as Catherine Anne McRae on 16th November, 1912, in a time when Brora and the world beyond were unrecognisable from what they are today.
DONALD was born at Park Cottage, Golspie, eldest son of Hugh and Ina Munro and brother to Forbes. He was educated at Golspie primary and secondary schools. He left school in 1951 aged 16 and started work with Sutherland County Council in the finance department.
GEORGE Alexander Mackay of 1 Munro Place, Bettyhill, or Geordie Crow as he was better known from the family by-name, was born in Newlands on 12th January 1931, eldest of the seven children of James and Lizzy Mackay. His mother came from Scourie.
THE death has occurred in Bedford at the age of 95 of John L Coghill, who was brought up in Golspie and who was a former chief architect of Glenrothes, where he lived for many years.
ANDREW Sutherland of 2 Sutherland Road, Golspie, died on 20th December 2007, after a long battle with cancer. He will be greatly missed by all his family and friends.
LAIRG was saddened recently to lose its oldest native resident, Renee Munro, at the age of 98, a grand old lady who endeared herself to young and old alike and who loved to keep up with all her many friends.
THE new year was but four days gone when the community of Rogart was stunned by the news of the passing of three of its residents. All of them were people whose family roots stretch to the soul of the parish.
NEWS that the Rev Fred Fulton had died peacefully at home in Braemar on 5th January was received with much sadness within the congregation of Dornoch Cathedral, particularly by those of the older generation who shared his ministry in Dornoch.
HER many friends, relatives and neighbours in Kirtomy, Strathnaver, Bettyhill and far beyond were greatly shocked and saddened to learn of the death of Mrs Ena Munro of 105 Kirtomy, who passed away peacefully but unexpectedly at Caithness General Hospital on Sunday 2nd December, having been admitted to hospital late on the preceding Thursday.
MENTION Raymond Philcox and it immediately brings a smile to your lips, because you can't think of him without also bringing to mind the many activities he was engaged in with all their happy memories.
CHRISSIE CAMERON died at her home, 2 St Gilbert Street, Dornoch, with her family on 22nd October. It was only six weeks since her 89th birthday after a fulfilling life run at a hectic pace.
FLOSSIE MacPhail (nee Mackenzie), who died on 6th October, was born in Cacarraig, Clachtoll, on 25th February 1920. She attended Stoer School, and from there went to the domestic science school in Glasgow.
MARKIE was born in November 1914, one of a family of nine, and lived in Gower Street, Brora, with his mother Isabella and father David, five brothers and three sisters.
ALICK Mackenzie, who died in the County Hospital, Invergordon, on August 30th, aged 95, was among the last of the old-style shepherds who followed their vocations in solitary places without the least inclination to watch the clock.
THE people of Lairg were shocked last month by the sudden passing of local man Colin Corbett, aged 36, who died in a road accident on the outskirts of the village.
A CALM nature is a very desirable characteristic for anyone to possess but particularly so for someone regularly faced with stressful situations, such as a hotel manageress.
RELATIVES and friends were deeply saddened at the death of Mrs Elizabeth Lockie, “Marish”, East Tulloch (Betty as she was known by her friends) only one year after the passing of her husband Hamish.
THERE is often more to quiet and unassuming people then meets the eye and such was certainly the case with Mrs Catherine Mackay Macdonald of 72 Midtown, Farr, who passed away in Caithness General Hospital on 10th June.
MANY old friends in the district learned with much regret of the recent death in Inverness of Mr George Andrew, a much respected former Bank of Scotland manager in Bonar Bridge.
NANCY SINCLAIR was born on 17th March 1932, the only daughter of John and Ann Macdonald who lived in Blair Atholl, where John, a railwayman, helped Ann run the Garry Guesthouse.
MEMBERS Of his large extended family and many friends over a wide area were deeply saddened at the recent death in Castle Gardens Nursing Home, Invergordon, of Bonar Bridge native George Dingwall at the age of 93.
HER many friends, relatives and neighbours in Bettyhill, Golspie and much further afield were shocked to learn on Wednesday, 28th March, of the sudden death of Mrs Fiona May Mackay,Tigh Nachie, 108 Kirtomy, at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness at the all too early age of 40.
ST Finnbarr's Episcopal Church in Dornoch was packed recently for a service of thanksgiving for the life of Scottish Natural Heritage employee John Dargie, aged 46, from Rogart.
AT THE recent funeral service for Golspie teenager Mark Ballantyne, held at Brora Rangers' Dudgeon Park ground, the following tribute was paid by Dr Rod Houston, former depute rector of Golspie High School and now development manager of the Highland Football Academy in Dingwall:
MANY friends over a wide area learned with much regret of the recent death of Bonar Bridge native Robert Ross, after a long illness borne with much courage and patience.
THE funeral service for Mrs Helen MacDougall (née Sutherland), who died on 15th February aged 74, was held in St Andrew’s Parish Church, Golspie, when the minister, the Rev Dr John Sterrett, gave the following tribute:
THE death took place recently at Kinghorn, Fife, of the Rev Donald MacKenzie who in his young ministerial days was well known in the Northern Counties. He was aged 86 years and had been in ill health for some time.
THE funeral service of the late Robert Dickie Smith, Bob as he was known to all, took place on 25th January in a crowded Clyne Parish Church in Brora. The service was conducted by the Rev Ian McCree. The eulogy, penned by Hugh Baillie, was delivered by James Fraser.
WHEN author Emma Wood left her Norfolk home in 1982 in search of escape from the jingoistic fervour sweeping rural England in the wake of the Falklands War, she eventually wound up on a desolate sandy hilltop overlooking the Pentland Firth, where her reverie was suddenly interrupted by the arrival of a local gentleman on a quad bike.
JOHN’S death on 7th January marks the passing of an applied scientist in the great tradition of “the lad o’ pairts”. He was uniquely gifted in many disciplines and had a generous spirit.
JESSIE MORRISON, who died in Oversteps Home, Dornoch, on Saturday at the age of 95, was among the last of the old side-school teachers who taught children in remote communities throughout the Highlands in the first half of last century.
EVERY NOW and then as you journey through life you meet someone who, no matter how you’re feeling, can manage to lift your spirits and make you smile. That was Joey Mackay.
JIM PATERSON, who died at his home in Tain last Friday, aged 79, after a long battle with cancer, was for over 40 years a prominent farmer in Easter Ross as well as being one of the area’s most colourful and irrepressible characters.
LORNA HAY, wife of the late Peter Hay, former factor of Assynt Estate, Lochinver, passed away peacefully on Monday of last week in the London Clinic following an extremely tenacious battle against cancer.
DOROTHY Georgina Johan Mackay, known as Dolly, was born at Riverside, Invernaver, on 12th November 1925, third in the family of Alexander Mackay of Achina and his wife, Jessie Marion Mackay of Crossburn, Skerray.
AFTER a long spell of debilitating illness, the death took place recently in Raigmore Hospital, Inverness, of Mr Derek Webber, Gun Cottage, Midfearn, Ardgay, where along with his wife he resided for the past 15 years, after several years at Gledfield.
AN EVER-HELPFUL friend, good neighbour and one of the most genuine of men, Jimmy Wyper, who died peacefully in Melness on 13th August, will be very much missed in the area.
DONALD Smith was born in North Tolsta in Lewis on 26th August 1934, the first of a family of six boys - Donald, Alec, John Angus (Shaul), Kenny, Donald John and John (Kiddo).
MANY friends over a wide area learned with much regret of the recent death of Mrs Bessie Levy at the home of her daughter and son-in-law in Inverness after a long debilitating illness throughout which she was devotedly and conscientiously nursed by her daughters Olga and Christine, supported by her son-in-law Frank, younger members of her family, and her home carers.
MANY old friends in Bonar Bridge and elsewhere learned with much regret of the recent death in Perth Royal Infirmary of George Ross, Glenfarg, after a short illness.
The following tribute was paid to Charles Janson, husband of the Countess of Sutherland, at his funeral service at Dunrobin Castle on Monday, by the Very Rev Dr James Simpson, formerly Moderator of the Church of Scotland and minister at Dornoch Cathedral. Mr Janson died on Thursday, 15 June.
MEMBERS of his extended family and many friends learned with deep regret of the death of Johnny MacKenzie at Carnmhor, Bonar Bridge, the ancestral home for several generations.
THE DANCE in Smithton Village Hall, near Inverness, on the evening of Friday, 10th January, 1964, proved to be a good bit more exciting than the average country hop.
DAVID Bullock, a talented graphic designer in the Golspie studios of Method Publishing Ltd, died at the tragically early age of 34 after a bravely fought battle with cancer.
