Born to Croft

For twenty years, Ena MacDonald has written a popular, entertaining and sometimes forthright monthly column for the newspaper Am Paipear. Here, her articles are collected together. Ena is renowned or her lifetime's dedication to traditional crofting methods and for her passionate advocacy of sustainable farming practices that protect and preserve the precious machairs and grasslands of her beloved Kyles on the Scottish island of North Uist. Born in 1940, Ena paints vivid pictures of growing up on a croft before machinery and 'going barefoot to collect the peats'. She records a way of life that has changed beyond recognition and is perhaps gone forever. Ena's gift and skills working with animals and her love for cattle, sheep, chickens, dogs and cats are apparent on every page. Ena became one of the most respected and revered female crofters in Scotland.