103777: Donald Alick MacKillop

Donald Alick, born 1931, was the youngest child of Norman MacKillop and Marion MacKay of 2 Borve.  During his days at Berneray School, he acquired the nickname ‘Splash’.  He used to tell the story of how he jumped into the puddles on his daily walk to and fro, splashing his schoolmates.

Donald Alick was a lobster fisherman and occasional relief ferryman. He also worked the croft, which was passed to him following his father’s death in 1971.

He married the local district nurse, Gloria, who came from Australia. In due course, they extended the croft house in order to run it as a bed and breakfast. Possibly their most notable guest was HRH Prince Charles, Duke of Rothesay, who stayed with them twice. The first occasion was in 1987, when he visited Berneray in order to experience life in a remote community. The prince worked with the sheep and planted trees, alongside Donald Alick and the local crofters. Again, in 1991, he stayed with Donald Alick and Gloria, when he returned to Berneray to film a TV documentary, ‘A Prince Among Islands’, presented by Selina Scott.

Donald Alick inherited a keen interest in the island’s history from his father, and became chairman of Berneray Historical Society. He recounted some of his memories of Borve in the introduction to Bill Lawson’s Croft History of the area.

He made several sound recordings for both the School of Scottish Studies and the BBC. The recordings are available on the Tobar an Dualchais website. A convenient way to access them is through Donald Alick’s biography page.