This Book
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Nope......but it looks an interesting read and will be going on the list of books to buy
If you get the chance, try getting a copy of Sixty Glorious Seasons by Richard Sidgwick - the memoirs of Finlay Mackintosh, a Badenoch Stalker 1883-1966...... Sometimes, I think we have it easy!
If you get the chance, try getting a copy of Sixty Glorious Seasons by Richard Sidgwick - the memoirs of Finlay Mackintosh, a Badenoch Stalker 1883-1966...... Sometimes, I think we have it easy!
thanks opticron1, i'll have a look for it.Nope......but it looks an interesting read and will be going on the list of books to buy
If you get the chance, try getting a copy of Sixty Glorious Seasons by Richard Sidgwick - the memoirs of Finlay Mackintosh, a Badenoch Stalker 1883-1966...... Sometimes, I think we have it easy!
This one i've posted is hard to come buy nowadays due to Duncan's family sadly passing away over the years.
Yes I have it, but suspect hard to find now - cannich stores had a limited stock.
If you can find a copy it’s well worth a read, he was a super chap.
A true gentleman.
I had the great pleasure of doing some work experience under Duncan’s wing and the unsolicited reference letter he gave me at the end is something I treasure.
He was very fond of long, protracted and quite gentle humorous tales - to help pass the time. One evening he gave me and my pal a lift to the river at the head of the loch to cast a fly. It was a slow run in the old land rover, so he passed the time regaling a tale of a young lass who used live in the glen. Before she moved to the glen her job was to test motor vehicles to see how many miles they got to the gallon. In the days before gauges for such things. She’d pour in exactly a gallon to the dry tank and run it on a circuit and see how many miles it went.
The story went on for a while. Then it got to the part when she was in the glen and trying to help out on the Croft she was staying at. She offered to help milk the Croft cow. Never having done it before but having read the principles, she found a wee stool and a pail and headed off to the field. She patted the cow and talked gently to reassure her, set the stool down and started milking. Hardly a drop went into the pail and the cow reared its head and wandered off. So she picked up stool and pail and caught up with the cow, set the stool down and restarted milking. Again, hardly a drop hit the pail and the cow moved off.
Some hours later, the crofters wife was wondering where on earth the lassie had got to. Seeing her out in the field she walked over and asked how the milking was going.
Well, the lass said, I think about 23 miles to the gallon…….
If you can find a copy it’s well worth a read, he was a super chap.
A true gentleman.
I had the great pleasure of doing some work experience under Duncan’s wing and the unsolicited reference letter he gave me at the end is something I treasure.
He was very fond of long, protracted and quite gentle humorous tales - to help pass the time. One evening he gave me and my pal a lift to the river at the head of the loch to cast a fly. It was a slow run in the old land rover, so he passed the time regaling a tale of a young lass who used live in the glen. Before she moved to the glen her job was to test motor vehicles to see how many miles they got to the gallon. In the days before gauges for such things. She’d pour in exactly a gallon to the dry tank and run it on a circuit and see how many miles it went.
The story went on for a while. Then it got to the part when she was in the glen and trying to help out on the Croft she was staying at. She offered to help milk the Croft cow. Never having done it before but having read the principles, she found a wee stool and a pail and headed off to the field. She patted the cow and talked gently to reassure her, set the stool down and started milking. Hardly a drop went into the pail and the cow reared its head and wandered off. So she picked up stool and pail and caught up with the cow, set the stool down and restarted milking. Again, hardly a drop hit the pail and the cow moved off.
Some hours later, the crofters wife was wondering where on earth the lassie had got to. Seeing her out in the field she walked over and asked how the milking was going.
Well, the lass said, I think about 23 miles to the gallon…….
brilliant.I read the book when i first got it and have kept it wrapped in a carrier bag in my drawer, started reading it again today. Hardy people loving life to the full. you truely were blessed having that time under his wing.
Glen Affric is stunning. I've hiked into Camban Bothy for an overnight, never met another soul the whole way in. Do you know why he calls it Affaric but everywhere else it's Affric?
100%
I read the book when i first got it and have kept it wrapped in a carrier bag in my drawer, started reading it again today. Hardy people loving life to the full. you truely were blessed having that time under his wing.
Glen Affric is stunning. I've hiked into Camban Bothy for an overnight, never met another soul the whole way in. Do you know why he calls it Affaric but everywhere else it's Affric?
Affarik or Affaric is the way they spelt it when Duncan would have first arrived. I remember the lodge and the cottage Duncan and his wife stayed in being called the same and that was in the mid 80s, so I guess it’s changed over the years.
I emailed Cannich stores, here's the reply.
Michael,
Sadly the book is no longer in print and there are no plans to do another run as it was self-published by the family. The only place you will find one now is on the second hand market but that as you an imagine will be rare
Sorry we couldn’t give you better news
Kind Regards,
Nicole Collins
image
Yes I have it and a dam good read it is and I also have 60 Glorious seasons too. I met Duncan over 40 years ago when I was and assistant in the film department at STV on a a Wier's Way shoot with him in Glen Affaric. I visited it again many years later this time as a Producer filming with the late Dick Balharry. purchased my copy when promoted on this site from the local store.
If you want to hear a first hand commentary on how the landscape has changed over a period of time in a certain location this describes it all. It is both a social and environmental record of it all, and what is more, it is telling us where we are going wrong.
Get a copy and read it..
Donsider
If you want to hear a first hand commentary on how the landscape has changed over a period of time in a certain location this describes it all. It is both a social and environmental record of it all, and what is more, it is telling us where we are going wrong.
Get a copy and read it..
Donsider
Duncan and his wife lived in a cottage owned by a good friend of mine. Who at the time owned part of Affric with his cousin and one other person. On Duncan passing my friend then sold the cottage . My friend got copies of the book which a few of us where given .
I read half the book then with moving put it away . It's still wrapped up in a plastic bag
I read half the book then with moving put it away . It's still wrapped up in a plastic bag
James Wutherspoon by any chance?
For forty-nine out of fifty-one years my family holidayed annually in the area. Starting in 1963 initially we used the (now demolished for about a decade) Glen Affric Hotel in Cannich and then in later years, after the Wutherspoon family crossed the loch to the White House (I believe granny Wutherspoon's house originally which I remember as a ruin), we rented the Lodge. The Landseer murals were stabilised and restored when the Lodge was significantly improved and repaired by the Watson family. I remember "old" Duncan and his wife and family living there in the cottage pictured, and yes, he could tell a tale. He and Willie "Cougie" Mackenzie were great friends, the latter being the retired stalker who ghillied for us for many years. Also living in the Glen, and ghillieing on the river, were Willie Fraser and his family; Willie was an RSM in the Lovat Scouts and had been born at the head of Glen Affric.
I have 2 copies of Duncan's book which I heartily recommend. I will NOT sell both.
There is another book about the Glen, less well written than Duncan's but he was of the generation of highly educated Scots keepers and stalkers, which I would also commend.
On spelling I think it is like a great many originally Gaelic names and the English spelling was phonetic, making three syllables rather than two of the name.
It remains "the prettiest place in Europe in October" the upper part of the Glen.
I have 2 copies of Duncan's book which I heartily recommend. I will NOT sell both.
There is another book about the Glen, less well written than Duncan's but he was of the generation of highly educated Scots keepers and stalkers, which I would also commend.
On spelling I think it is like a great many originally Gaelic names and the English spelling was phonetic, making three syllables rather than two of the name.
It remains "the prettiest place in Europe in October" the upper part of the Glen.
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maximus otter
Well-Known Member
There was - repeat “was” - a copy on AbeBooks until 5 minutes ago.
Curse this forum for making me spend money…
maximus otter
Curse this forum for making me spend money…
maximus otter
Jura
Well-Known Member
NickJ
Well-Known Member
Yes, cracking book, record of a simpler era
I stalked Glen Affric on occasions through the 90s. Apart from the walkers and midges... a fine spot
@Oldstalker I used to stay in the lodge (I was at your old Alma Mater with John Watson's son, Andrew) and could stare at the blue sepia Landseer murals on the drawing room wall for hours. It was just a shame you couldn't open a window in the summer without the screens down as the place would fill with midges! I hope you are well
I stalked Glen Affric on occasions through the 90s. Apart from the walkers and midges... a fine spot
@Oldstalker I used to stay in the lodge (I was at your old Alma Mater with John Watson's son, Andrew) and could stare at the blue sepia Landseer murals on the drawing room wall for hours. It was just a shame you couldn't open a window in the summer without the screens down as the place would fill with midges! I hope you are well
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NickJ
Well-Known Member
That's another good book as is Dickie's one about Sir John Ramsden and his Ardverikie (etc) estatesNope......but it looks an interesting read and will be going on the list of books to buy
If you get the chance, try getting a copy of Sixty Glorious Seasons by Richard Sidgwick - the memoirs of Finlay Mackintosh, a Badenoch Stalker 1883-1966...... Sometimes, I think we have it easy!
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