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Malcolm Cameron

Born 1941

I want to go where that sun is rising

"It was a really hard life but so happy,” says Malcolm Cameron as he recalls his early years of living in a shepherd's cottage at Achnacly, Dunbeath.

He recalls how his mother cooked and baked on an open fire, fuelled by peat which had to be cut, transported, and stacked beside the house. Water was collected from a nearby well and the house was lit by paraffin lamps.

Groceries were bought from a mobile shop and he recalls how his mother adhered strictly to her shopping list as she managed her finances. He remembers the delicious taste of the crowdie made by his mother.

School for Malcolm was deferred by a year as they lived seven miles up the Dunbeath river and arrangements had to be made for Malcolm to board in Dunbeath during the week.

Initially, he lived with the Kennedy family in Portermin Road, Dunbeath but,

"The smell of the sea and the caw of the gulls didn't go down well with me,” so he stayed with his grandparents at Houstry.

Once his brother Robert started school, they travelled by school transport in a car described as the Beehive.

When Malcolm was 12 years old the family moved to a more modern house near Lairg, Sutherland and he continued his education at Lairg Junior Secondary School.

On leaving school, Malcolm started an apprenticeship as a brick-layer and recalls waiting each morning for a lift at the Mound, Golspie. He recalls the sunrises over the Dornoch Firth thinking, "I want to go where that sun is rising.”

When he joined the army he claims, "I got to where the sun rose.”

He spent 3 years in Malaya and a further 3 years in Germany when he joined the army and served with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers (REME).

On his return to Caithness, he married Elizabeth and they bought land at Laidhay and built a house there.

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