John Love
From 2nd to 4th May 1963, His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh paid a short, little-known visit to the Loch Druidibeg National Nature Reserve on South Uist.
Dr J Morton Boyd, Regional Officer for the Nature Conservancy, had arrived a few days earlier to make arrangements, along with Dr James Campbell from Perthshire, a keen ornithologist who knew the Outer Hebrides very well.
I have compiled this account from Morton’s File Note in NC files, and from Dr Campbell’s diary, extracts of which have kindly been made available to me by his son, and a very good friend of mine, Dr Lennox Campbell.
Loch Druidibeg National Nature Reserve was to be the focus of the visit and the Duke of Edinburgh, who was put up in Grogarry Lodge, was keen to see as much wildlife as possible. Although the intended royal visit had been kept strictly under wraps, when Morton visited the Reserve Warden Murdo MacRury to notify him, he was surprised to discover that the family had already heard all about it the day before – from the local grocery delivery van! Such is the ‘bush telegraph’ in the Outer Hebrides.
2nd May 1963 dawned wet and windy but improved so that, after only an hour’s delay, the Heron of the Queen’s Flight, piloted by the Duke himself, landed at Benbecula in late afternoon. The Duke was accompanied by his aide Admiral C D Bonham-Carter, a detective and a valet, with the well-known naturalist Aubrey Buxton arriving the next morning. The Royal party were greeted by a single pressman and several children, before being driven south, viewing a buzzard nest on the way, to have a relaxed and convivial dinner at Grogarry Lodge by 8pm.
Fortunately the weather had improved considerably the next day and after breakfast Murdo led them down the Skipport road where he surprised everyone by having a small dinghy ready to take the Duke and Aubrey Buxton across to one of the islands in Loch Druidibeg. In Morton’s photograph (above) Dr Campbell is pushing the boat out, which the Duke insisted on rowing, as Murdo sits rather nervously in the bows. Fortunately, the island was close to shore, and the loch nowhere more than four feet deep, so any accident was unlikely to be serious!
The Duke was shown two Greylag goose nests and the eggs in one were in the act of hatching – the parent geese flew around calling so the Duke got some good photographs. After a brief look at the eastern boundary of the reserve, the party paid a short visit to the MacRury’s neat little cottage which the warden’s wife, Dolly, had scrupulously scrubbed from top to bottom the day before. One room doubled as the reserve office where the Duke added his name to the book.
The Royal visitors then proceeded south to Loch Boisdale where a short boat journey took them to a Golden Eagle’s eyrie near the shore. With his big camera the Duke approached carefully and succeeded in getting shots of the bird on the nest before she flew. There was one chick in the nest and Bonham Carter fussed about the bird being kept off too long. But the Duke stayed behind – in vain – to get a shot of the bird coming back. On the journey back they inspected a heronry in the bushes along the north shore.
As the party scrambled along the cliff, they feared for the Duke in his unsuitable wellingtons so Dr Campbell grabbed his coat tails. On the way back to the pier they viewed peregrines, ravens, and a Black-throated Diver with the Duke firing off with his Hasselblad, and visited the machair at Loch Hallan with the intention of then enjoying some trout fishing.
But the Duke was keen to see North Uist so the party, in two cars, did the circular tour, and viewed Newton. Dr Campbell had been keen for the Nature Conservancy to take it on as a Nature Reserve but in the end they settled on Druidibeg. They enjoyed a late dinner and before retiring the Duke visited the kitchens to thank the staff.
After a day of glorious weather and a highly successful visit, their flight departed Benbecula without ceremony first thing next morning, again with the Duke at the controls, before the wind and rain set in again.
