During
a fieldwork trip to the Isle of Skye during the summer of 1948 Calum Maclean
accompanied his Swedish colleague Åke
Campbell
as they explored the material culture and old buildings in the northern part of
the isle. Maclean later recollected their meeting with Seton Gordon who had
taken up resident in Kilmuir and was by then one of the leading Scottish
naturalists:
Dia Máirt, 13 Meitheamh 1948 [NFC 1299, 261–63]
Bhí sé a’ báisteach ar maidin indiu. Tar éis bricfeasta, chuadhas suas
chuig teach a bhí i n-aice leis an dteach ósta agus d’ fhiafraigheas de fhear
an tighe a mbíadh cead againn na sgiobóil agus an stábla aige a sgrúdú. Bhí sé
sásta go leór cead a thabhairt dúinn. Chaitheamar cupla uair a chluig annsin
agus fuair Åke Campbell rudaí a bhí suimeamhail go maith. Tar éis dinnéara, chuadhamar
amach a’ cuartú shean-tighthe. Níor éirigh ró-mhaith linn chor ar bith agus
chuaidh Åke Campbell ar ais chuig an teach ósta agus leanas do’n gcuartú.
Chuadhas chuig teach eile annsin i nDùn Tuilm agus d’ iarras cead ar fhear an
tighe breathú ar na stáblaí. Fuaireas sin agus thugas Åke Campbell ar ais liom.
Bhí an sean-teach a bhí ag an bhfear seo i n-aice leis an teach nua slinne ach
thuigeamar nach raibh sé ró-shásta maid a leigean isteach ann. I n-a dhiaidh
sin thug sé an-chabhair dúinn. Bhí cuinneóg agus airm oibre aige agus sgrúdaigh
Åke Campbell iad. Tar éis dinneara, bhí roinnt sgríbhneóireachta le déanamh
againn. Chaitheamar cupla uair a’ chluig ar an obair sin. Casadh as sgríbhneór,
Seton Gordon, orainn anocht agus dubhairt sé linn go raibh cupla sean-teach i
gCill mo Luag agus daoine i n-a gcómhnuidhe ionnta. Bhí duine amháin ann,
Murchadh MacMhathain, agus chomhairligh sé dhúinn a dhul chuige. Shocruigheamar
sin a dhéanamh amáireach.
And the translation goes something like the following:
Tuesday, 13 July 1948 [NFC 1299, 261–63]
There was a downpour this morning. After breakfast, I went up to the
house next to the hotel and asked the man of the house if
we could get permission to examine the barn and the stables. He was happy
enough to give us permission. We spent a couple of hours there and Åke Campbell
thought things had gone well. After lunch, we went out to see an old house.
Things didn’t out so well for us and Åke Campbell went back to the hotel and
continued measuring. We then went to another house in Duntuilm and we asked permission from the house
owner to visit the stables. We got that and I took
Åke Campbell back with me. The man who owned the old house had a new house
beside it and we could see that he wasn’t too happy to let us in. But after
that he gave us tremendous help. He got a
milking pale and agricultural implements which Åke Campbell examined. After
dinner, we had a bit of writing to do. We spent a couple of hours at that work.
We met Seton Gordon, the writer, tonight and he said to us that there were a
couple of old houses in Cill Mo Luag with folk still living in them. There was
one man, Murdo Matheson, and he advised us to go and see him. It was arranged
to do that tomorrow.
Not far from his former home
in Kilmuir, Isle of Skye, a memorial shaped as a bench commemorates a prolific
author of books about the Scottish Highlands and Islands, especially
travelogues with a particularly interest in natural history. The plaque inscription
reads: “In the memory of Seton Gordon, CBE, writer and naturalist whose
twenty-seven books on the Highlands and Islands led many people to appreciate
their beauty. His love of the Hebrides influenced his coming to Skye where he lived
for more than fifty years among the people of this area.”
Perhaps no other
twentieth-century author than the long-lived Seton Gordon (1886–1977) can be
given so much credit for bringing the vast area of the Highlands and Islands to
the reading public’s attention. His deft touch as an expert naturalist and
photographer, as well as a folklorist, gives his books not only an immediacy
but also an interpretative depth not found in similar works.
Born
in Aboyne, Deeside, Seton Paul Gordon came from a wealthy family. His father,
William Gordon (1839–1924), was from old Aberdeenshire stock. He was town clerk
of the City of Aberdeen, a position to which he was appointed in 1875. He was also a Justice of the Peace and a
member of the General Council of the University of Aberdeen. By contrast, his
mother, Mary Ella Paul came of Hertfordshire stock, and was described as rather
shy and quiet with a streak for intellectual pursuits and she became known as ‘The
Queen’s Poetess’ such was Queen Victoria’s liking for her poetry.
In a letter of 1934
addressed to him, and penned by someone who knew his mother, Nan Yorke-Mitchell
wrote that she recalled him as a ‘young lad with a penchant for wandering in
hills and dales and hobnobbing with birds and beasts.’ By an early age Gordon
had caught the bug which was to have a profound effect on his chosen career. As
a youth he would wonder around the countryside and be delighted with exploring
every available nook and cranny. Wider access was made available when he
received a bicycle as a present.
The
Grampian mountains had been a distant prospect but as soon as Gordon reached
his teenage years he then became more familiar with them. From boyhood, Morvern
Hill, near Aboyne, was a favourite haunt where he took to roughing it in
bothies (where he took his pipes) and made lasting friendships with the old
breed of stalkers who were often very knowledgeable local historians and more
often than not pipers. He was to have a life-long association for the area and
he became familiar with the natural habitats of birds and beasts alike as he
roamed around an almost unspoiled wilderness. He befriended a great deal of the
local gamekeepers such as the McDonalds who stayed at Bynack Lodge. Gordon had
a great respect for them as he picked up their knowledge and craftskills.
Perhaps
a typical journal entry for the 24th of September 1905, should suffice in order
to give a flavour of one journey that he took:
Cycled
(& walked!) from Kingussie to Braemar. Left Kingussie 6.30. Frosty
then…Lost the path at the watershed, & had to carry our cycles through a
bog. Met 2 men who put us right. Heavy rain from the watershed till
Geldie Lodge. Then fine till Braemar. There had scarcely been any
rain! The Williams met us in the car & took us down. Max: temp
for Sat: & to-day. 56º
After
being more or less privately tutored at home, along with a short stint at a
private school in Rugby, Gordon took a summer course in zoology at the
University of Aberdeen before entering Exeter College, Oxford, to study the
natural sciences. After some trepidation with regard to his finals having spent
too much time playing golf, Gordon attained his degree in natural sciences and
diplomas in rural economy and forestry. Gordon also had the opportunity to
hobnob with all kinds of students and he became unlikely friends of the Russian
aristocrat Felix Youssoupoff (sometimes Yussopov) and also Edward, Prince of
Wales. Gordon would later accompany the Oxford University Expedition to
Spitsbergen, Norway, as a photographer in 1921.
Having received his first
camera at the age of seventeen, he soon became an accomplished amateur
photographer and, in 1907, at only twenty-one years of age, Gordon published
his first book Of Loch and Mountain,
illustrated with ninety of his own photographs. By this time he was also
well-established freelance writer and would cover the Braemar Gathering for The Times and The Morning Post.
After
a ball at the Vincent’s Club at Oxford University in 1913, Gordon met his
future wife (Evelyne) Audrey Pease (1893–1959). They were a good match for one
another and went on to have a son and two daughters. They both came to the love
the Isle of Skye more and more and decided to settle there. Seton produced a
flow of books and articles and their joint research resulted in two memorable
books, Days with the Golden Eagle and
The Golden Eagle, King of Birds.
Their photographs are still regarded as classics.
Gordon remained an inveterate
wearer of the kilt and was seldom seen without his trademark deerstalker hat.
He also retained an ardent love of the great outdoors, especially the
Cairngorms, Skye and the Hebrides. He observed, ‘After the war we visited much
of the Highlands and Hebrides, staying with crofters, camping on the islands,
some of them uninhabited, living the hard way, thus getting to know the
crofters and their outlook on the world.’
In total, Gordon published
twenty-seven books (as well as three which he co-authored) between 1908 and
1971. His output may be divided more or less between those about the Scottish
Highlands and those about birds. As previously mentioned, two books in
particular Days With the Golden Eagle
(1927) and King of Birds (1955) helped
to popularise this magnificent creature, and ensured its continued survival in
Scotland.
Gordon and his wife initially
moved from Aboyne to Aviemore, and later to the Isle of Skye’s Trotternish
Peninsula, where they would remains for the next fifty years. For many, his
classic writings about the Scottish Highlands were achieved with two
publications Highways and Byways in the
West Highlands (1935) and its successor, Highways and Byways in the Central Highlands (1949), both of which
remain in print. Both books set out a rich tapestry comprising the vast
Highland landscape against their natural history and the lives and folklore of
the folk who lived there.
As a lad of parts Gordon’s curiosity
seemed to be boundless especially when it came to the natural world – geology,
botany, trees, birds and animals – and also the Highland landscape held a deep
fascination for him and the folk who lived there. Gordon would view a typical
Highland landscape and seek to unlock its mysteries through observation and
also through language. Although never to be a fluent Gaelic speaker, did not
stop him from soliciting the expertise of others who would explain to him the
meaning of place-names.
Piping was also to be
lifelong hobby and he was one of the pioneers who gave birth to the Glenfinnan
Games and regularly took on the duty of judging at competitions. Despite his
partial deafness which deteriorated in his late twenties, Gordon still kept on
with his piping and other duties.
After the death of his first
wife, he later married a family friend Elizabeth Maud and they divided their
time between Skye, Kintail, and Biddleston Manor, Northhamptonshire, where
Seton Gordon died in March 1977. In accordance with his wishes, as with his
late wife, his ashes were scattered on Braeriach in his beloved Cairngorms.
References:
Raymond
Eagle, Seton Gordon: The Life and Times
of a Highland Gentleman (Moffat: Lochar, 1991)
Rennie
McOwan, ‘Man of the Hills’, The Scots
Magazine, vol. 157, no. 5 (Nov., 2002), pp. 473–78
NFC 1299 [Calum Maclean’s diary]
Images:
Seton
Gordon looking into the Lairig Ghru, Cairngorms
Memorial
bench to Seton Gordon, Kilmuir, Isle of Skye
Seton
Gordon
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