port henderson : past & present - Royal Commission on the Ancient ...

number of willing helpers were on the scene of the accident, having carried a boat to the loch, where
dragging operations were immediately begun. The car was located about ten yards from the shore in
twelve feet of water, and after some difficulty was hauled out by means of fishing tackle. It was not known
till then that the car had two occupants. Life in both cases was extinct. Mr. Duncan Macpherson, aged 75,
was a prominent Gairloch fisherman and boat owner, and a capable seaman. He leaves a grown-up family.
His son was <strong>present</strong> at the recovery of his body..........'
On the census for 1901 Duncan MacPherson was 36, a fisherman and was married to Margaret, sister
of James MacKenzie, the unmarried head of the household. Duncan and Margaret had two children at
that time, Duncan aged five and Catherine aged two. Another child, Alexander, had been born in 1900
but he died when two months old. James, his two unmarried brothers (Thomas and John) and the
MacPhersons shared a house on croft 4 which had six windows.
The black fairy-knoll (according to Wentworth)
A’ Chathair Dhubh or as written on the OS map Carr Dhubh is a bare, evenly-shaped knoll, with
heather and some grass on one of its two tops, lying between the B8056 road and Loch nan Eun.
Unfortunately, although there might have been a tale about this knoll, no local information was given
to Roy Wentworth and maybe its other translation of ‘black rock’ should be taken (OSR).
A fishy tale (according to Dixon)
Many local tales were about fairies but there were other stories about water creatures. One of
these stories concerns the mermaid of Port Henderson. Roderick (Rorie) Mackenzie who was still
alive, but elderly, in Dixon’s day, was a boatbuilder and well respected in the community. (On the
census forms from 1861 to 1901 for croft 15 are listed the family of MacKenzies who were described
as ‘boat carpenters’ and ‘boat builders’. The ‘carpenters’ house had three windows and Roderick’s
sons, John and Colin, were also boat builders.) One day, when
The rocky coastline
Roderick was young, he was collecting bait for a fishing trip on a
rocky part of the shoreline. There he saw a mermaid sleeping
amongst the rocks. Rorie managed to seize the mermaid by her
hair. The mermaid pleaded with him that if he let her go that she
would grant him any wish he would care to make. Rorie requested
that nobody would ever be drowned from any boat that he might
build. The mermaid gave her promise and she was allowed to go free. And from that day Rorie’s boats
were seaworthy and no-one ever drowned when sailing in them. Dixon wrote that he possessed one of
Rorie’s boats an, at the end of telling this short tale, suggested that those who wrote trade
advertisements might like to use this anecdote. (It seems that Dixon took the story with a proverbial
‘pinch of salt’).
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