Introducing the Chairman

Introducing the Chairman

Our new chairman,Neil MacLeod, was appointed at the AGM in March.

Neil was born in the South Lochs area of Lewis. He served his apprenticeship with the well-knownHighlandcivil engineering firm, Duncan Logan and worked on a number of major projects across Scotland

When Neil returned to Lewis it was as an employee of Fleming’s, marine engineers in Stornoway, where he became a partner in the firm. The next move was to set up his own business, Hebridean Engineering, which flourished for twenty-eight years, until the retirement of Neil’s partner last year. The company built up a ‘can-do’ reputation. No job was too small or too difficult, and the firm is much missed in the island.

Neil is descended from a long line of shepherds and his passion, since taking over the family croft from his father, has always been sheep. At one time he crofted in Calbost with the founder of the Crofters Union, the late Angus ‘Ease’ MacLeod. These daysNeil is a renowned breeder of blackface and cheviots. His rams and ewe lambs are in great demand and he finishes lambs for Heather Isle Meats. He won first prize for a shearling cheviot at the Royal Highland in 2003, a unique achievement for a Lewis crofter. He is always among the prizewinners at the local shows and last year won champion of champions in Lewis and Harris for his blackface tup named ‘Plan A’ (“because there’s no Plan B” says Neil).

At the age of just 62, Neil has recently started a new career as a weaver of that famous crofting product, Harris Tweed. As well as chairing SCF, he wears a number of other hats, including director of the Scottish Sheep Strategy, Lewis Crofters Ltd, Co-Chommun na Pairc and Long Island Auction Mart. He is on the sheep and cattle technical committee of Quality Meat Scotland, on the Crofters Commission panel of assessors and has recently given up the chair of Lewis and Harris Sheep Producers.

Neil takes a particular pride in the producer group of which he is a founder member. The supply of lamb to the Co-op supermarket in Stornoway has made quality local lamb available to local consumers and has assured a fair-trade return to the producer. An internet marketing scheme launched last year has already proved very successful, and the supermarket behemoth, Tesco, has agreed to market local lamb when they hit Stornoway this year.

These developments help to give Neil an upbeat view of crofting prospects.” We need to do more of what we’re good at,” he says –“producing good, hardy, healthy store and breeding stock. The Scottish Crofting Produce Markis an exciting initiative which will give crofters an opportunity to boost income. It fits well with the Scottish government’s emerging food policy.” On the other hand, there are concerns over accessibility of the Scottish Rural Development Programme, untenable price increases in fuel and feeds, and burgeoning bureaucracy. He sees Scottish Crofting Foundation as “an organisation with a seat at the top table, punching above our weight”.

Neil will be looking for recognition by government and its agencies of the valuable role we have to play. Neil has allocated areas of responsibility to each of our directors and he hopes to bring the experience of thirty years in business to the operation of the organisation. Finally, Neil thanks members and fellow directors for their continued support.