Author:

adapted from mary carmichael the land where i belong: fifty years in focus in the highlands and islands (2010)

Location: Lochalsh
gaelic culture

Duncan Macpherson's Highland legacy

Duncan Macpherson (born 1882 and died 1966) was a local pharmacist in Kyle of Lochalsh. Born in Aberdeenshire, Macpherson graduated from the University of Edinburgh as a pharmacist before establishing his own pharmacy near the ferry terminal in Kyle of Lochalsh in 1911.

He photographed a vast record of the changing way of life across the Highlands. This unique and valuable collection is little known outside the community, but it ranks as one of the most significant photographic archives of life in Scotland. He documented snapshots of traditional life in Lochalsh, the Isle of Skye and further afield across the West Coast throughout the mid-20th Century, playing a key part in helping Kyle of Lochalsh and the Isle of Skye establish themselves as a tourist destination.

You can read more about Duncan Macpherson in the book The Land Where I Belong: Fifty Years in Focus in the Highlands and Islands by Mary Carmichael.

Find out more about visiting the Isle of Skye and Kyle of Lochalsh.