The butcher who helped put Stornoway black pudding on the map has died.
Charlie “Barley” Macleod had fought ill health for many years after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease.
The family shop in Stornoway on Lewis was closed yesterday and will remain shut today.
Father-of-three Charlie, 67, ran the famous Charles MacLeod family business with his brother Iain, working at Crobeg Farm in South Lochs, which their father Charles established in 1958. They also sold their produce through their butcher’s shop.
Stornoway locals call them by their nickname, the Barley family, and celebrity fans of their world-famous black puddings include former first minister Alex Salmond, Question Time presenter David Dimbleby and TV chef Rosemary Shrager.
Western Isles MP Angus MacNeil paid tribute to Charlie.
“He made a huge contribution to island life and helped put one of its iconic emblems on the map. He will be sadly missed,” he said.
The business was one of four Stornoway butchers that were instrumental in getting European protection from fakes of the famous pud – putting it on the same level as Parma ham and Cornish pasties.
The European Commission awarded the pudding Protected Geographical Indication after a campaign by the local butchers.
The status means it can only be described as Stornoway black pudding – known as marag dubh in Gaelic – if it is produced in the town or parish of Stornoway on Lewis.
The butchers obtained EU protected statues because they were concerned at the international use of Stornoway or Stornoway-style on menus to describe inferior puddings.
The family firm’s working hill farm in a remote part of Lewis was bought by Sir Christopher Geidt, private secretary to the Queen, last year. Sir Christopher’s grandfather, Kenneth Mackenzie, was a fish curer and coal merchant before he established a Harris Tweed manufacturer’s plant in Stornoway and became provost of the Outer Hebridean capital.