Kenneth Macdonald
Credit: Am Baile

Kenneth Macdonald is one such figure. He was a solicitor and in due course the town clerk of Inverness for 40 years. He was also a volunteer army officer and a champion of the crofters’ cause. The last was a deeply political and contentious issue requiring knowledge and tack.

Born in Inverness in January 1850, Macdonald attended Inverness Royal Academy before being apprenticed to a local solicitor, James Anderson. Macdonald left, aged 18, to study law at the University of Glasgow, where he distinguished himself by winning various prizes.

Besides attending law classes, Macdonald served for three years in the office of Glasgow solicitor William Lucas. Macdonald returned to Inverness as a fully-qualified solicitor at age 21 and set up in practice on his own.

Macdonald represented several crofting communities facing eviction or extortion, including those involved in 1882 in the famous Braes dispute in Skye, when police and crofters clashed over grazing rights.

In addition, Macdonald also represented East Sutherland crofters from Skibo before the new Crofters’ Commission and those from Airdens, Bonar Bridge, in the sheriff court.

Macdonald served for many years in the Royal Artillery Volunteers, reaching the rank of colonel, and also as a member of Inverness School Board.

He was also a member of the Gaelic Society of Inverness and his considerable research into and writings on the burgh’s history were recognised with a Fellowship of the Antiquarian Society of Scotland.

Elected to the town council in 1878, Macdonald soon became a bailie, but resigned three years later when appointed town clerk of Inverness, a post he held for forty years.

At the time of his death in 1921, Macdonald was senior partner in Messrs Kenneth Macdonald and Laing, Inverness. He was also clerk to the Water and Gas Commissioners, and to the Harbour Trustees.  

But it as a champion of the Highland people that he will be best remembered. Fittingly, the Clearances historian and campaigner Alexander Mackenzie dedicated his book Skye 1882-1883 to Macdonald describing him as “A Genuine Friend and An Able Advocate of the Rights of Highland People.”