Scottish Farmer photographer and much loved Niall Robertson, Mull

One of Scotland's best-known livestock and countryside photographers, Niall MacKinnon Robertson, passed away recently in Aberdeen Royal Infirmary following a short illness.

Born in 1950 in Tobermory, on the Isle of Mull, Niall was the second of two children to Ian and Mary Robertson. A brother to his elder sister, Marion, he was educated at Tobermory Primary School and was a boarder at Oban High School, which he attended until 1968.

Most of the holidays for the Robertson family were spent on the idyllic island of Coll visiting Niall's grand-uncles, Archie and Hector MacKinnon, at their croft near Sorisdale.

While his parents were keen on him becoming a French teacher, Niall had other ideas and studied photography, and related science at the Glasgow Metropolitan College, in Glasgow, and qualified in 1972.

He joined The Scottish Farmer newspaper as a photographer soon after qualifying and along with his colleague, John Fraser – who joined before him – shared a busy workload travelling up and down the countryside with journalists covering the best and worst news stories in agriculture. Some of these included the tragic news stories of BSE and foot-and-mouth, and the pleasures of farm features and livestock shows and sales.

Niall was a stickler for detail when out in the field, but he also had a particular ability in the dark room for making the most of the negatives that he and John produced in the black and white days – a process which carried on up to the early noughties, when a full change to colour was made.

His colleagues always appreciated his skills, especially when on farms producing feature material. Niall also had a particular talent in communicating with people in all circles of life in order to get the most out of them for the photograph required.

He was so at ease with everyone, that on several occasions, people commented on how thought they had met him before even though they hadn't ! A total 'one off', his wit kept him in good stead, should anyone dare to have other thoughts or opinions!

Niall produced some of the best livestock photographs for which The Scottish Farmer had become famous for. He also took on as a special portraits project for the millennium year – 'Living Legends'. These portraits created some masterful studies of a select few, capturing the very essence of them in their home environments. Many still adorn the farm houses of those involved, ironically being used on more than one occasion in their funeral notices and obituaries.

Another passion of Niall's was working with Young Farmers. He brought his artistic talents to bear when helping to produce YFC annual concerts, in particular coaching drama for both West Renfrew YFC and SSS YFC.

He particularly enjoyed taking photographs at the West of Scotland YFC Talent Spot in April.

He was famous for some of his outrageous one liners when public speaking, with 'a warm hand at my entrance' and 'are you going to get that cock out for a picture?' being particularly memorable.

Although allergic to horses, his love of them and their photography enabled him to meet his long-term partner, Hamish Cameron, in 2000.

Niall's home life was kept private, which coupled with a busy workload, meant few were introduced to Hamish and his Highland ponies in the first few years of their relationship.

Niall would often travel up to Forfar for weekends, where Hamish lived in the early years and latterly then to Laurencekirk. They enjoyed drives in Niall's range rover with his two dogs, Buster and Fearn and at home where the cooking was cordon bleu as ever it had to be with Niall being the perfectionist.

Another dog that Niall acquired earlier became a legend amongst his colleagues. Fergus was a harlequin Great Dane of gigantic proportions.

He had the distinction of occupying the entire rear seat of various company cars, like a Vauxhall Chevette and a Morris Ital, the latter of which Fergus excelled himself by consuming the entire rear seat bench – much to the chagrin of the fleet manager. He was also famous for his 'dodgy' tummy and many a journey was carried out with both front windows down, whatever the weather!

A proud Muileach, Niall was devoted to his parents and found his father's passing, in 2012, a hard one to take, which was made all the more difficult when his mother died just three years later in 2015.

Niall moved in with Hamish just before Covid, but their life together came to a abrupt end on December 8, when Niall passed away peacefully with Hamish by his side.