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Pat the Pier

From Moriston Matters, Issue 8, August 1978.

Local Personality No. 2.

Pat The Pier

NINETY YEARS OF ESSO - NINETY YEARS WITH ESSO.

"De Esso Sign Means Happy Motoring" goes a modern jingle, but historically these 90 years past in Glenmoriston “De Esso Sign" has also meant the vital business of wheels and communications. This year, 1978, Esso is celebrating 90 years of its existence, and 1978 too sees 90 years of Esso's dealings with Peter MacDonald & Sons of Glenmoriston. And, of course, the present physical embodiment of Peter MacDonald & Sons is Pat the Pier.

Pat the Pier is one of the Glen's most well-known and popular personalities. More than that, he is one of these genuine characters, well-endowed with a sharp wit and turn of phrase to match, beneath which there lurks a keen brain (Pat is a Dux of Glenurquhart S.S. School).

Pat belongs to one of Glenmoriston's oldest families of MacDonalds, of which the Hamishes, the Drovers and the Archies are blood branches. Many will remember with affection Pat's father, Danny the Pier, who along with his brother Ronnie the Pier, de1ivered men, goods and mails up and down the Glen, H.M. Royal Mails being delivered at first to Dalchreichart and Ceannacroc and then from the 1920s as far as Cluanie. A few of the older inhabitants will recall Pat's grandfather, Peter the Pier, Peter Ruadh as he was known (on account of his great red beard), who founded, over 90 years ago, the Peter MacDonald & Sons business at the Pier, men and goods being then delivered by wagonette. (Pat's house at the Pier, incidentally, was designed (in 1908) by an architect who belonged to another of Glenmoriston's old families, the Grays). But no one now will remember Pat's great grandfather, Donald. He, a joiner to trade, lived somewhere in Invermoriston (Fasach? Achnaconeran?) and he too - in a pre-Esso age - delivered men and goods to the old pier at the Pier. He was known as Donald the Carrier. Beyond that swirl, the mists of unrecorded local history, although it is known that there were MacDonalds in Glenmoriston during the '45, and their Jacobite exploits are well documented. It does, however, seem reasonable to speculate that Pat's forebears may have been descended from refugees from the Glencoe massacre, access from Glencoe to Glenmoriston being relatively easy and there being in existence the legend of the baby materialising in the Glen in the wake of the massacre. (But this legend is common to other glens). A branch of this family of MacDonalds emigrated to Canada in the latter half of last century, where their descendants still live.

They have been making attempts to trace the line further back but unsuccessfully so far.

Over the years Pat the Pier has been connected with many aspects of the afore-mentioned wheels and communications - mails, of course, but also school dinners and pupils, coal, sand and grit for icy roads, timber, ferrying men from the outposts of Hydro Scheme camps to the bright lights of the Highland capital and the young at heart from the Glen to neighbouring dances, and a garage business (the first Peter MacDonald & Sons garage being built from the previous village Hall, the Comrades' Hall, situated below Jimmy Steele's house but having been blown down in a great gale of 1927 or 28).

A notable 'first' in Pat's entrepreneurial career - the acquisition and bringing to the Glen of a real taxi - has already been referred to in "Moriston Matters”. But another 'first' may not be so fresh in memories - the bringing to the Pier of a motor launch, and some will recall the interesting and eventful cruises the ''Vigilant" made furth of the Pier into Loch Ness. But to call this a 'first' is perhaps misleading for many years ago Peter MacDonald & Sons operated a ferry between the Pier and Knockie.

Pat's nerve-centre now is the Inver Service Filling Station situated near the summit of the Churchyard Brae. This is indeed a far cry from the time when Esso delivered paraffin, the fuel vehicles consumed then, to the Pier, where the first petrol pump was installed in 1920. It was at the Filling Station that "Moriston Matters" bearded Pat, where amidst the scurrying of summer season vehicular and human traffic he kindly made himself available. It is here, too, that his young family, the twins, Colin and Ruaraidh , Donald and Connie may be seen assisting operations. Mrs. Pat MacDonald, Donella, formerly taught at Invermoriston School and is now on the staff of Fort Augustus Secondary, She has an account of her four-generation New Zealand forebears, which "Moriston Mattters" hopes to pub1ish in due course.