Ruaraidh Hilleary of Edinbane
Highlander, SAS soldier, adventurer and bon viveur
Ruaraidh Hilleary of Edinbane ERD, Highlander, SAS soldier, adventurer and bon viveur. Born: February 8 1926 in Bridge of Allan. Died: February 16 2021 on Skye, aged 95
The choice was clear. “You can have a thrashing now and skate tomorrow, or you can give up skating tomorrow.” Naturally, he chose the former, but overnight it thawed and skating was off. This typified Ruaraidh Hilleary’s approach to life – opportunities were weighed up and decisions arrived at by their ability to provide adventure and fun, with the consequences an accepted part of that process.
Ruaraidh Hilleary was born in 1926 at Craigarn Hall, Bridge of Allan, where his father Iain was working in the Whisky trade for his grandfather, Duncan Macleod. Although much of his early childhood was spent in the south, he was always immensely proud that Skye was his background. He recalled a boyhood challenge of riding his bike up the steps leading to the kitchen in Skeabost House, and trying to race around the kitchen table, before Mrs Buchanan, the fierce cook, could get him with the rolling pin. His grandmother, aware of the boisterous behaviour, tried to control things by endlessly shouting “whatever you are doing, don’t”. This became the title of Ruaraidh’s excellent autobiography written a few years ago, and illustrates far better than this short synopsis can possibly do, just how full and varied one life can be.
For more than 100 years the Hilleary family has had a prominent presence on the Isle of Skye, after Major Teddy Hilleary arrived and married into the Macleod of Gesto family, whose connection to the island goes back 700 years. The family has made significant and highly valuable contributions to the economic benefit of the island. Major Hilleary’s grandson, Ruaraidh, unlike his forebears, never entered local politics, but his contribution to the Island’s life was still immeasurable. Elected representation never appealed – his approach was more unconventional, in that he was more aligned towards an entrepreneurial view of bringing about improvement and change in the community. For Ruaraidh it was a case of identifying an opportunity, confirming its feasibility and motivating others
who could potentially benefit.
However, Ruaraidh’s long life stretched much further than his beloved Skye. Adventurer, sailor, skier, entrepreneur and member of the Territorial SAS. Indeed, he was instrumental in the campaign to save the Regiment when he learned that the British army wanted to disband them int he early1950s.f roman idyllic childhood in Skye in the 1930 s, school days at Et on duringthe first part of the war were followed by postings with the Scots Guards that included Trieste and the bombed ruins of Cologne. He canoed the Zambezi, fell into a crevasse in the Swiss alps and experienced the Crest a run and the bob sleigh in St Moritz, without brakes!
His professional life was equally varied and intrepid. From cutting his teeth at the White Heather Laundry, he sold cutlery in Zimbabwe, insurance in London, smoked salmon in Paris, cashmere in Spain and Highland wine in Scotland. He owned and ran a caravan park and partnered in a fish farm with Jethro Tull star Ian anderson. more recently he was instrumental in establishing the first commercial wind farm in Skye on his estate at Edinbane, a joint community enterprise. This now produces enough power for over 25,000 houses, more than the entire
population of the Hebrides. Although a man of adventure and risk taker, Ruaraidh recognised the importance of family. He had a number of romances during his late teens, but the world was to change for him when he met Sheena Mackintosh. She was the eldest daughter of Christopher Mackintosh, Olympic long jumper, World Bobsleigh Champion, Scottish Rugby international and world-class ski er, and lady jean Douglas-hamilton, daughter of Alfred Douglas-hamilton, 13th Duke of Hamilton. Sheena, a member of the Great Britain Olympic Ski Team, was viewed by ru a raid has perhaps beyond his reach and it took him some considerable time to attract her attention. Ruaraidh and Sheena wed in June 1952 and had four children, Dhileas, Alasdair – the renowned cartoonist Loon – Duncan and Iona (who died in 1971). They parted in 1982 when Ruaraidh moved back to Skye and She en a wanted to stay and run logie Farm Riding Centre on the east coast. they eventually divorced but remained good friends until Sheena’s death in 2018.
Ruaraidh’s abiding love for his beloved Skye and its historic traditions was enshrined in his membership and stewardship of the Skye Gathering. He was honorary secretary for 45 years, and made the twonight Skye Balls one of the most sought-after social invitations in the UK. Partygoers who misbehaved or were improperly dressed we returned away at the door, no exceptions! Ruaraidh was always looking for something challenging and in 2003 he announced that the Gathering was going to St Petersburg. A 747 was chartered and 230 members enjoyed a memorable Ball and fine hospitality in the ancient Russian capital.
In the last few years Ruaraidh’s physical health declined, but his mind and imagination were as sharp as ever. He never lost his joie de vivre and was able to enjoy a globe artichoke and local crab on his 95 th birthday, the week before he died.
Ru araidhwa sat rue highland gentleman. In the words of the late Sir Ian Moncrieffe, those like Ruaraidh were equally comfortable in the presence of anyone put on God’s earth. Moreover, anyone coming into contact with Ru araidhfeltspecia land up lifted by his enthusiasticpersonality. for those of us who knew him, he will be honoured as a great son of Skye, a man who dedicated a large part of his life to try to ensure the betterment of those people living on Skye and beyond.
was never really inspired by the notion of the Internet of Things (IOT), probably for several reasons.
It might well be handy for your fridge to tell you when you’re out of milk (or even order some more), for the TV to be able to speak to the toaster and to turn the heating up when you’re heading home from work.
But somehow these sort of things didn’t really chime in the farming world - and even if they did, the chances are that the poor connectivity in many farms and rural areas, with dialup broadband speeds and mobile signal not-spots, would hamper any communication.
And I think this has put a lot of farmers off even thinking about the concept of smart gadgets, so a recent online conference (complete with the usual ‘your internet connection is unstable’ warning) was a bit of an eye-opener.
For it looks like a radio signal system called LORAWAN (low-power long-range wide-area network) has the capability to connect almost every area of many farms without the need for either a broadband connection or a mobile phone signal, working instead from a central base unit most likely attached to the roof of a shed which can send out and receive signals.
And on top of that, the huge and growing range of sensors which can be linked into the system actually look like they’ll be able to do far more.
These fairly cheap and cheerful sensors can measure a huge range of variables which can provide you with useful information, warn you when something has gone wrong and even save you some hours taken up each day spent simply checking up on things saving an awful lot of time, labour and travelling.
These sensors can warn you if there’s a leak in a cattle water trough, keep tabs on bulk temperatures in the grain store (and log them for assurance scheme compliance), operate irrigation systems and give you advanced warning if the environmental conditions in the cattle shed threaten to encourage an outbreak of pneumonia among the calves – and they aren’t as expensive as you might imagine.
The small group of farmers in Scotland who have been trying out the concept under a project organised by the co-operative umbrella organisation, SAOS, found them to be reasonably reliable and pretty much farm-proof as well.
On top of thisk, power consumption is supposed to be pretty low, so you don’t need to be constantly re-charging or changing batteries.
And the sort of simple sensors which monitor soil moisture and temperature and which can help with decisions on when to make fertiliser applications have battery lives measured in years.
Other uses, include keeping track of vehicles -for security reasons and also for management purposes, can be combined with information on work rate, fuel usage and engine performance.
But those testing the systems
found that lone worker safety - with a personnel beacon which can not only signal if something has gone wrong but also where that worker is - was viewed as one of the major benefits.
So it’s good to see Scotland getting a foot on this ladder - although with only a handful of farms involved in LORAWAN pilot projects, we’re probably not leading the field on this front.
The state government in Victoria, Australia has rolled out hundreds of Lorawan-based IOT networks and the Welsh government is underwriting installation of the base units on the country’s 18 monitor farms.
With the potential to harness the predictive and recording abilities of these sensors to encourage and verify the adoption of sustainable farming practices, they could also play a key role in auditing and the next generation of climate change and sustainabilityfocused support schemes.
That means less paperwork and leaving us with more time for the actual daily job of managing our farms.
And at a time when Scotgov is setting up pilot projects for new policy measures, further state-funded investigation of this technology must surely play a part.
While Westminster and Holyrood are attempting to ease some of the burden of Covid-19 on businesses through a range of interventions, a failure to effectively administer nondomestic rates is putting firms at greater risk.
The recent Scottish Budget and subsequent announcement extended business rates relief to the end of 2021/22 for some sectors, including newspapers, retail, hospitality, leisure and aviation. While this was a welcome move, it again raises the question of why the Scottish Government is failing to address the fundamental issue of a perfectly viable business rates system being delivered in a way that isn't fit for purpose.
Rather than public money being ploughed into relief packages, the current mechanisms available within the non-domestic rates system could be put to good use. But the Scottish Government has refused to make the moves that would benefit businesses, employees and the wider economy .
The assessors have the option, within the Scottish legislation, to pro-actively address material changes of circumstance (MCCS), such as coronavirus. The system has the ability to respond through appeals or by assessors making adjustments to reflect an MCC. This is currently taking too long to happen. To provide more relief the system should be able to react quickly, using the relevant legislative mechanisms and past case law that would allow them to do so.
And the delays caused by waiting for the Westminster Government to make announcements means businesses are not given any advance notice, to accommodate potential rates liability or relief . Businesses therefore have no option but to model their outgoings from April with 100 per cent rates liability. This situation will lead to more companies failing and jobs being lost, and when we finally emerge from the pandemic there will be fewer ratepayers to share the tax burden.
At a time when state intervention in the reform of the non-domestic rates system has been significant, the Scottish Government must ensure it can react to support businesses through times of unprecedented hardshipcaused by events beyond their control. Mechanisms in the system should be used to help businesses return to normal and promote economic recovery when pandemic restrictions can be eased.
Time is running out. The Scottish rating system must be allowed, through MCCS, to reassess rateable values and issue revised bills, ahead of the new financial year.
It is a process that would offer critically needed relief for businesses, without a lengthy application processes, but a long-term positive outcome for the wider economy.
Louise Daly is a director of Colliers and head of rating in Scotland