Much-loved pillar of island community

Ruaraidh Hilleary was a larger-thanlife character and much-loved pillar of the Skye community. Despite an adventurous life which saw him travel the world, Mr Hilleary, who has died aged 95, never lost his love for the island which made him.

Unlike his forebears he never entered local politics, but his contribution to island life was significant.

His abiding love for Skye and its traditions was clear in his membership and stewardship of the Skye Gathering.

During his 45 years as honorary secretary he helped make the Skye Ball one of the most soughtafter social invitations in the UK, and audaciously took it to St Petersburg in Russia in 2003.

His name was known far beyond his beloved Skye as an adventurer, sailor, skier, entrepreneur and member of the Territorial SAS.

He was instrumental in the campaign to save the regiment when he learned the British Army wanted to disband it in the early 1950s.

An idyllic childhood in Skye in the 1930s and schooldays at Eton during the first part of the war were followed by postings with the Scots Guards that included Trieste and the bombed ruins of Cologne.

He canoed the Zambezi and fell into a crevasse in the Swiss Alps, sold cutlery in Zimbabwe, insurance in London, smoked salmon in Paris, and produced cashmere in Spain and Highland wine in Scotland.

He owned and ran a caravan park and partnered in a fish farm with Jethro Tull rock star Ian Anderson.

More recently he was instrumental in establishing the first commercial wind farm in Skye on his estate at Edinbane, which he set up as one of the first examples of a joint community enterprise.

This now produces enough to power in excess of 25,000 houses, which equates to more than the entire population of the Hebrides.

Ruaraidh Hilleary.