Son of a Highlander

About the Book

Son of a Highlander is the true story of the author, a third-generation Australian of Scottish Highland descent discovering his ancestral history over eight generations, from father to son. This is a search for authenticity of a verbal story handed down over a two-hundred-year period, along with a 1797 penny and a collection of photos and correspondence that are one hundred years old, which were from his late grandfather’s old tattered leather case. The author descended from the Clan MacLeod—Clan meaning “Children in Scottish Gaelic,” Mac meaning “son in Gaelic,” and the Leod derived from the Viking era; it basically means “children of the son of Leod.” The family originated from a small two-acre semisubsistent existence on the Isle of Skye in far western Scotland. The Macleod Clan was once a warrior race that feuded with neighboring clans in the most bloodiest of warfare. A clan system of traditions and culture that lasted hundreds of years that eventually came to an end with the notorious Highland Clearance, whereby thousands of people were evicted from their lands and replaced by sheep. With the mass exodus of people, some forcibly left while others left in desperation. This book is the history of one Highland family who survived a dangerous sailing journey to Australia only to continue their struggle against adversity on foreign soil. A search for the whereabouts of a Gaelic-speaking great-great-grandfather to discover he was sent to an island off the Australian coast, where he eventually died and was buried in a pauper’s grave along with 8,500 souls, whose only crime was that they were poor. This book is a must read for anyone wishing to trace their own ancestral history. It will inspire you and encourage you toward your own personal voyage of discovery.

About the Author

Alistair MacLeod is a third-generation Australian born in 1965 of Scottish Highland descent. An accomplished author with his first book, Never Die Wondering, an autobiography of the author’s adventurous journey in life and overcoming insurmountable obstacles to succeed in living his dreams and accomplishing his ambitions. The author has a unique style of storytelling with his plain spoken humor and succinct insight. His love for history, travel, and culture are evident with his storytelling that comes through in his writing. Alistair has had many roles throughout his adventurous life. He started his working life as a show time spruiker then as a jackeroo, leaving home as a seventeen-year-old and traveling Outback Australia. As a stockman, he worked on cattle and sheep stations with many itinerate jobs over several years, traveling and exploring Australia. He bought his first grazing property at only twenty-three years of age in the Snowy Mountains. He is an entrepreneur who has had many business ventures, creating an adventure, horse trekking, and tourist business. He developed a value-added timber-processing and milling operation, purchasing and developing several cattle-grazing properties and many other property development ventures over thirty years. A road scholar, not a Rhodes scholar, a raconteur whose life experiences and personal and business philosophies that drives his life are emphasized in his writing. A successful businessman who has made his wealth through property development and investment, which has enabled the author to explore many parts of the world, listening to stories from others and learning about different cultures and history. The author lives most of the year on the Victorian coast, where he enjoys sailing his yacht, since retirement from horse riding, and continues his traveling and exploring to remote locations across Australia and the world.