Barbara Mackintosh

Died: April 3, 2015

Barbara Mackintosh, who has died aged 83, was the co-hostess and post mistress of Inverailort Castle, an open house estate half way between Fort William and Mallaigwhere a number of innovations in Highland development were gestated and many lives enrichened.

The castle was once described by its last owner, the late Pauline Cameron-Head, as looking like a tumble down biscuit factory, but such was its tradition of open hearted hospitality that it was not unusual for there to be 20 for dinner with everyone from cabinet ministers to left wing land reformers either shouting the odds or listening. There was only one member of staff, Annie Macbeath the long suffering cook, and you either mucked in or were left out. And for nigh on 60 years Barbara Mackintosh was the shy ring master.

Visitors included activists such as Seton Gordon, Gavin Maxwell, John Lorne Campbell or Iain Noble and the house had an egalitarian ethos that spoke more of gaelic tradition than Victorian elitism.

The projects that evolved there were legion. Much of the fish farm industry was pioneered on the estate, the Glenfinnan games started here, the morning room was turned into the local post office with Barbara as the postmistress, the ballroom was used by school children to camp in, the castle library turned into a public one. It was an exemplar of what a properly run estate could achieve for the community and it made many "viagras" (I have an estate in Scotland but I don't get up nearly as much as I would like) hang their heads in shame.

Nobody quite understood how the estate worked or who organised the countless tasks, but it all somehow got done. The mechanic maintaining this complex piece of social engineering was Barbara Mackintosh.

She was born in Kinross as an only child into a family that had made its money in shipping and law and was educated at Ochtertyre public school and Glasgow's Dough School. A bright if shy child she found herself happiest when living at the family estates which were near Lochailort and in 1958 was invited by Mrs Cameron-Head, the laird of Lochailort, to catalogue the library at the castle.

Mrs Cameron-Head had inherited the estate when she was a mere forty and Barbara was her most successful guest, her first lieutenant, her ears, her friend, her deputy.

Mrs Cameron-Head's husband had been a noted gaelic activist and she was determined to continue his work of integrating the estate into the community, and in this task Barbara was an invaluable conduit.

Outwith her serious and committed work to this end, her interests lay in her somewhat romantic and high volume approach to animal husbandry and there were few easier places to be a cat, chicken or hamster than at the castle, indeed there was even a relaxed sheep which as a lamb had been warmed in the lower oven of the mustard yellow Aga that would intermittently drop in for a news catch up with old friends.

But it would be wrong to trivialise Barbara's hard and ceaseless contribution to a project that made such a substantial contribution to the lives of so many.

Mrs Cameron-Head died in 1994 leaving Barbara to hold the fort alone, which she did with great dignity and charm, though the Gaelic Camelot was never quite the same.

MAXWELL MACLEOD