OBITUARY ELIZABETH JANE MACDONALD, 1946 - 2022
A great Arisaig Highland Games stalwart and much-respected local genealogy expert, Elizabeth MacDonald was a true Highlander through and through.
Her family and many friends, including those around the world whom she had helped make a visit to Arisaig Games something special, were greatly saddened by her death at the age of 75 in January, not long after a shock diagnosis of cancer.
Elizabeth Jane MacNaughton was born in Fort William on May 8 1946, the second of eight children born to Charlie and Laura Jane MacNaughton, of Glenmamie Farm, Lochailort.
Her school years saw her educated at Arisaig Church School, then Lochaber High School, Fort William, where she, like other children from the area, lodged during the week, returning to Glenmamie at the weekend.
A bright and clever pupil, Elizabeth was encouraged to stay on at school, however, as was often the way then, she left school at the age of 15 and started work at nearby Traigh Farm, Arisaig, working for the Shaw-Stewarts as a dairymaid.
It was hard work but Elizabeth and the other girls who worked there had many good memories and it was a happy time.
Around this time, Elizabeth met Allan MacDonald, from Morar, and after three years of courtship, the couple married and settled first in Heatherknowe, Lochailort, where they had their son Charlie. After they moved to the New Buildings in Arisaig, daughter Wendy was born.
Elizabeth stayed at home to look after the children but, whenever the tide permitted, she would go whelk picking. It was difficult work, but she enjoyed being out on the hill and shore, helping to provide for the family. She would be out in all weathers, carrying the whelks back on her shoulders without a second thought.
Many a time she carried eight stone of whelks by herself.
When her children reached their teens, Elizabeth applied for a cleaner’s position at Marine Harvest, Lochailort, eventually rising to the position of manager of the salmon processing line.
A decade or so later, when operations at Lochailort moved to Blar Mhor, Fort William, Elizabeth transferred with the team, however, travelling was too much and she took redundancy when the chance arose a year or so later, joining Allan who had retired a few months earlier.
It was around this time Elizabeth became a grandmother to Katie, followed by Angus.
Retirement gave Elizabeth and Allan a chance to pursue in earnest their other interests of genealogy, local history, archaeology and Gaelic.
Many of the diaspora from Canada, America and Australia regularly return to Arisaig to investigate their roots and many would make a beeline for Elizabeth and Allan who had built up a considerable body of research and documentation relating to many families around the area, and those who left for far flung shores over the centuries.
Elizabeth had a great fund of knowledge regarding the clearances and emigrations and during the Highland Homecoming of 2014, she hosted a party of six nationalities in the house, one of whom was a Samoan lady.
In the course of the evening, the woman explained her father’s people had come from Scotland/Knoydart. This scant information allowed Elizabeth, by the next morning, having searched her records, to pinpoint the exact farm where the Samoan lady’s family had lived.
Elizabeth continued to love the outdoors and went walking to research local places of interest with friends whenever she could, taking whichever devoted dog she had at the time with her.
It was on one of these walks, in April 2013, during the Survey of the Rhu Peninsula, that Elizabeth spotted an inscribed Neolithic stone – a million to one chance of discovery according to the National Museum of Scotland which later verified the find. The stone is now preserved in the Sea and Island Centre in Arisaig.
Elizabeth’s interest in local history continued and she wrote a short book on the history of the local church.
One of Elizabeth’s greatest achievements was, after a three-year effort, securing the family farm at Glenmamie for future generations after it was put up for sale.
Elizabeth also enjoyed being in the 1999 Guinness Book of Records, having found on the shore at Keppoch Point a large native oyster weighing 1lb 13oz, width 6.5 inches, the largest oyster ever recorded at that time.
Elizabeth really was a woman of many parts – wife, mother, granny, sister, aunt, friend.
Everyone has their own memories of her which they will cherish and she enriched lives in many ways.
Despite all her interests and accomplishments, none, however, were more important to her than family.
Her funeral service in Arisaig Church of Scotland on Monday January 24 was packed to overflowing with as many standing outside, such was the respect and affection in which Elizabeth was held.
Elizabeth is survived by husband Allan, children Charlie and Wendy, grandchildren Katie and Angus plus five brothers and sisters - Dugald, Laura, Charlotte, Robert and James.