A BOATMAN in a Highland hamlet has drowned, the eighth in his family

to die in an accident. His death has left Tarbet with only one male

inhabitant.

Handa Island ferryman William Macrae, the last male, found the body of

39-year-old Alasdair Munro on Monday evening.

Mr Munro was drowned in view of neighbours and friends in the

Sutherland hamlet while searching for his fox terrier Frisky.

Police said Mr Munro was coming ashore when his small rowing boat

capsized. He had been searching unsuccessfully for his dog and had

transferred from a bigger powered boat to his small punt to come ashore.

Neighbour Mrs Dorothy Macrae noticed his small boat was at an unusual

angle and went in search of her boatman brother and Scourie postman

Robert McColl. They found Mr Munro's body near the shoreline.

He had kicked off his boots in an effort to reach safety.

The tourist trips to Handa, a bird sanctuary, were cancelled yesterday

as a mark of respect.

Mr Munro was separated from his wife, Jackie, from Kinlochbervie, who

now lives in Ullapool with their teenage daughter Nicola.

Mr Munro was a back-seat passenger in a car crash in a blizzard in

which his 67-year-old mother died in December 1990.

His father, his four brothers and an uncle have all been drowned in

boating incidents dating back to 1958. Only two married sisters now

survive from the family, fish-farmer's wife Mrs Liz Ambler, at

Fanagmore, Scourie, and Mrs Sandra Chester, a nurse, in Manchester.

The litany of disaster for the family, before Mrs Margaret Munro's

death in 1990, began when her schooboy sons, Donald and John, died with

their uncle Donald in June 1958 when their small boat foundered off

Handa.

Mrs Munro's husband, Alistair, was lost close to the shore in 1972

when lobster fishing. Their son Angus was washed overboard from a

seine-net fishing boat near Oban in 1974.

In August 1987, their fourth son, Cathel, was drowned with a friend

when they were crossing to Handa from Tarbet to shear sheep.

The tiny community of Scourie in north-west Sutherland has been

devastated by this latest tragedy.

The former local postmaster, Mr Robert MacDonald, said everyone was so

sorrowful for the remaining members of the family.

He went on: ''He was very fond of the dog and I understand it was not

at home when he returned last night. So he went out searching for

Frisky, and decided to borrow the big motor-boat to look for the dog

along the coastline and cliffs.''