For Andrew was the last man to work the 130-acre arable farm, variously called the Mains or Ha' of Warse, at Canisbay as a stand-alone agricultural unit.

It was there that he and his late wife Elizabeth (Betty, née Weir), who predeceased him three years ago, raised their family of one girl and three boys, all of whom have carved successful careers for themselves outwith the food-production industry.

Many said that standing beside the farm auction sales ring was genial Andrew's natural habitat, as he was one of the most astute traders of cattle, sheep and pigs from the Far North to markets as far away as Lockerbie. He had a wide range of customers and colleagues at the sales ringsides, from Dingwall and Inverness in the North on to Aberdeen, Perth and Stirling.

For dozens of Caithness couples with no links to farming, Andrew was the man who played Cupid, as they first met at the successful series of village hall weekend dances that Andrew organised and stewarded to raise the funds needed to create Canisbay's extended and modernised community centre.

Resident Church of Scotland reader Lyall Rennie, in an impressive eulogy to the widely respected man, told a packed ancient Canisbay Kirk at his funeral service on February 5, that Andrew's kin had farmed Warse for five generations.

As a young Wick High schoolboy, Andrew spent Thursday lunch times at the weekly livestock auction sales at Sinclairs' Mart, off Bridge Street; before long he was spotting a bargain and buying the occasional beast for finishing at Warse before, hopefully, profitable resale.

With the early death of his father Donald, Andrew had responsibility thrust on him at a young age. His mother, a Stroma islander who had been a teacher at Canisbay Primary before marriage, employed Dan MacLeod to manage the farming enterprise for a short time until Andrew could take up the reins. Dan's son Hamish, of Lochend, was a pall-bearer.

In 1953, Andrew wed Betty and it was at Warse that they brought up their family - Marjory, Donald, Brian and Alan.

Andrew's livestock trading initially involved him driving loads of animals to distant marts; later he hired cattle floats, becoming a pre-eminent judge of market trends with the help of a range of industry contacts the length of Scotland. Andrew's Warse was renowned for its quality livestock, especially cross-Simmental cattle.

Keenly interested in local affairs, Andrew threw his heart and soul into achieving the dream of ensuring that Canisbay had a community centre fit to serve activities by all age groups in the parish. A regular series of hall committee dances boosted the coffers. At peak there could be as many as five double-deckers bringing young folk from all over Caithness for a weekend evening's entertainment at Canisbay.

He organised the bands, took the door money and, with his colleague, the late Harry Gunn, of West Canisbay Farm, acted as steward. In the early days there were groups such as Eileen and the Talismen and Umeandus (Jigsaw Puzzle), while Andrew later introduced local audiences to country and western favourites, including Colorado from Golspie, Ruby Rendall and her Band from Orkney and Johnny Bremner's band from Invergordon.

After work, Andrew enjoyed nothing more than a sociable dram, especially at the Seaview Hotel at John O'Groats, where his funeral wake was held. He even did a stint as a part-time barman there.

A highly-intelligent, outgoing man with a perceptive quick wit and an easy ability to converse with people from widely different backgrounds on a range of subjects, including politics, Andrew was a popular regular there under the late Alex Wares and then Andrew Mowat.

He served for a period as a special constable and enthusiastically joined with other local people in getting the Gills Pier Committee revived in the mid-1980s.

He put no pressure on his family to follow him into farming. Marjory works for the council in Aberdeen where she stays with her partner Farquhar MacIntosh, a food-factory maintenance engineer.

Donnie trained in the bacteriology laboratories at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, where he met his wife. The couple and their family live in the village of Soham, near Cambridge. Recently Donnie was appointed as depute chief medical bioscientist at the Royal Ipswich Hospital in Suffolk, to where he commutes daily.

Brian, a specialist oil industry engineer, lives near Aberdeen with his wife Mairi and their two boys. He can be, and is, called at short notice to fly off to help solve relevant equipment problems in oilfields worldwide.

Alan's workplace lies within sight of Warse, on Flotta, Orkney, with Opus Plus, the successful 50-employee company spun out of the North Sea oil terminal there.

He lives in Orkney with his wife Shona, from Rousay, and their three young children.

Andrew's marriage was happy. Towards the end of Betty's life he showed his dedication by manfully coping with the everyday needs of his invalid wife during her lengthy terminal illness.

At that time, he used to regularly take a short break down to Gills harbour at ferry times, getting news from both sides of the firth, as well as wryly commenting on the island farmers' sheep consignments passing through.

He was pleased with the arrival of Pentland Ferries' brand-new £10 million catamaran Pentalina a year ago.

Andrew remained a well-kent face at Quoybrae mart sales for years after he retired from day-to-day farming and active trading.

Warse farm now belongs to the Anderson family from Broynach, Murkle, and is part of their substantial Caithness agricultural enterprise. To his friends, Andrew praised the two Anderson sons' industriousness and capability of putting in hard graft; qualities that he admired.

And he was delighted when young agricultural contractor Donald Swanson and his photographer bride Susie (née Mackenzie) recently moved into the stone-built farmhouse next door to his retirement bungalow to help look after the Warse livestock.

Andrew Dundas's passing truly marks the end of an era in Canisbay parish. His legacy is his family, making their marks in varying walks of life and in the community centre at Canisbay, in use on a daily basis. B.M.

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