Niall McKillop

Born: November 7, 1947

Died: September 6, 2024

Niall McKillop, who has died aged 76, was a mariner, naturalist and author who passionately defended the Wild Atlantic Salmon. He came from generations of Highlanders and was a true polymath.

His book Rondo One-Eye tells the story of a female grey seal pup whose life hangs by a thread through the interference of humans. Her survival story on the West Coast of Scotland tells how she communicates and copes with fellow mammals and birds. The story reflects how the human race stands today with regard to the natural world, how we alter and affect it, often inadvertently but sometimes with cynical disregard for the other species with which we share the planet.

His poem The Last Leaper of Gruinard is a siren call to save the wild Atlantic Salmon, “The King of Fish”, from extinction in Scotland.

Niall Duncan McKillop was born in Inverness and came from generations of Highlanders. His grandfather had been the Clerk to the County Council in Inverness and had been involved in the evacuation of St Kilda in 1930.

His father Alan McKillop had returned from the Second World War to become a successful architect specialising in Highland hotels. Allan had been rapidly promoted to Major in the Cameron Highlanders and served in Burma and the Far East with awards for bravery. He designed the war memorial at Kohima in India following the famous victory against Japan.

Niall’s mother Barbara, who is still alive today aged 102, came from generations of farmers in Selby, North Yorkshire. Barbara was a young nurse working in Sheffield Hospital when the city was being bombed for its steel making and still recalls shifting patients to the hospital basement.

The young Niall accompanied his father on architectural visits to Gairloch and Torridon Hotels, where he learned to fish salmon and understand architectural colour and form.

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His youth was the Cold War era. The future King was sent to Gordonstoun and Niall was sent from Inverness to HMS Conway school in Wales for his secondary schooling. He learnt to row, sail and navigate at HMS Conway. Wales was a long way from Inverness, but he learned to cope with “character-building activities” and less emphasis on academic learning.

Niall’s father died suddenly when he was aged 16 and down in Wales at HMS Conway. He ruefully remembered being summoned to the headmaster’s study to hear the news. Standing to attention after saluting and being told “chin up and back to your class”.

After school, he joined the Merchant Navy and had been around the world twice before the age of 21. However, he realised his heart was in the Highlands rather than the Merchant Navy. He did a variety of jobs around Inverness including gamekeeping and recounted many colourful stories around estates, clients, guns and wildlife. He also set up an office cleaning company.

He came to Fort William in the 1980s and set up the Lochaber Lady tourist boat on Loch Linnhe for trips around the seal colony. In 2000 he married his long-term partner, Sarah.

He returned to work in the North Sea oil industry, but his passion was Highland wildlife.

His naval education meant he had missed out on university, but he became an avid reader on a wide range of topics from wildlife, history, art, poetry and politics. He was generous with his books and loved to share his latest passions.

His communication skills and intelligence meant he was quick witted, popular and engaging. He had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the birds, mammals and fish of the Highlands and became a keen observer of their behaviours. He was an avid fly fisher for salmon and trout on the Shiel, Guinard and in the Uist.

(Image: Niall McKillop)

He used his natural world observations to publish Rondo One-Eye in 2000, which gave a seal’s view of the world and human interactions.

He had just completed a film script called The Otters of Bonnet Bay before his sudden death.

He was active politically and stood for the first intake of Holyrood as a co-founder of the Alliance Party to represent the Highland rural voice against the central-belt policies. Later his generational baby-boomer upbringing with a Highland father, English mother and schooling in Wales made him an active unionist on social media.

He was passionate about saving the wild Atlantic Salmon from extinction which he felt was under threat from the Norwegian salmon farming industry. He was enthralled by its natural life cycle which involves migrating from Highland rivers to Greenland and returning to their birthplace river to breed again.

He wrote a brilliant poem about the wild Atlantic Salmon’s migration journey called the Last Leaper of Gruinard. He uses the metaphor of the anthrax-poisoned island as the proxy of the fish farm at the mouth of the river Gruinard. He was very active in the Salmon Aquaculture Reform Network and this poem was written just before his death to promote their cause.

His professional skills in navigation, his deep and empathetic knowledge of the natural world and his poetry demonstrate that he was a true polymath. He died suddenly with so much more to contribute and leaves his wife Sarah and mother Barbara. His sister Fiona predeceased him.

JAMES DOUGLAS

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