Magdalena Sagarzazu’s visits to Canna from the Basque country as a young girl more than 60 years ago began a long love affair with the island.
Ms Sagarzazu, who has died aged 70, made annual trips with her father, Saturnino, a close friend of folklorist John Lorne Campbell, and her sister to what became her home and the focus of her adult life.
Campbell, a Gaelic scholar, and his wife, Margaret Fay Shaw, who gifted Canna to the National Trust for Scotland, amassed a huge collection of Gaelic and Celtic songs, stories, poetry and a unique array of butterflies and moths.
Ms Sagarzazu embraced the multi-lingual and multi-cultural environment in the Campbells’ home.
After training in administration and commerce in Spain, she re-trained as a teacher and spent holidays on the island off the west coast, helping Campbell catalogue the extensive collections.
After Campbell died in 1996, she moved to Canna full-time to continue the work and was subsequently appointed as an archivist by the NTS.
Ms Sagarzuzu lived in Canna House until 2004 when Margaret died. She continued cataloguing the archive and answered daily research inquiries from across the world until her retirement.
She also contributed to several publications, including her paper on Alexander Macdonald, Alasdair MacMhaighstir Alasdair, Bard of the Gaelic enlightenment.
Canna House archivist Fiona Mackenzie said her contribution to the heritage of Canna and Scotland is immeasurable.
And her friend, Professor Hugh Cheape, said: “Magda won the hearts of all of us who work or have worked in the area of our cultural heritage.
“She was keenly aware of the international significance and ‘reach’ of the life’s work of the Campbells of Canna and she worked tirelessly and with great passion to preserve and propagate this.”
In 2015 she was presented by the NTS with the George Waterston Memorial Award for an employee of exceptional integrity and commitment.
The following year the Saltire Society named her as one of Scotland’s Outstanding Women of the Year, alongside First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and author JK Rowling.
She died in San Sebastian with her husband Joaquin and family around her. A memorial in Scotland is planned when travel restrictions ease.
