Fresh leads for Fighting Mac writer

Ewan McVicar was inspired to write his book Hector the Hero of the North after his interest in the late Sir Hector Macdonald was kindled down the years.

He said the launch in front of a knowledgeable audience has already prompted plans for an expanded version. He said: “I myself had brought new information to share, found in the North Star of 1905. In that year the rumours of Major General Macdonald not being dead had led to a London weekly newspaper offering £1000 for proof of his death. After all none of his family had seen the body in its sealed coffin. The reward had not been claimed.

“Another new gem was the 1905 advertisement for a memorial pipe called Fighting Mac, ‘Mac-na-Cogaidh’, sold by Urquart’s of Dingwall in five versions. The finest had a blockamber mouthpiece, was silver mounted and cased, for the high price of five shillings and sixpence.”

He learned that the four cannons around the Macdonald monument on Mitchell Hill had been donated by the War Office as “obsolete”. His co-author, Jonathan Maccoll, shared the news that when the monument was inaugurated the cannon were fired by an ex-gunner called Hugh Urquart – prompting the question as to whether he was any relation of the pipe-selling Urquart?

Mr McVicar is also chasing leads related to Macdonald’s friend, fiddler J Scott Skinner, who composed the famous lament, Hector the Hero.

He’s also on the trail of additional information about a smaller monument in Mulbuie to Macdonald’s memory. He said: “More staring at microfilm screens in the libraries for me. I’m determined to get the answers.”