From Army major to scuba diving instructor in Egypt - the path to becoming Highland Council’s newest councillor
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
He served in the Army for 34 years, has completed the Berlin marathon several times as a runner and on skates and is a relief lock keeper on the Caledonian Canal.
Now Duncan McDonald is taking on his latest challenge as the newly-elected independent representative for Inverness South on Highland Council.
Since emerging last month as the winner from eight candidates in the by-election - called following the resignation of former councillor Colin Aitken - Councillor McDonald has immersed himself in getting to grips with his new role and the workings of the council.
Inverness South elects Independent candidate
Openness and honesty at the heart of why new councillor wanted to stand
Highland Council leadership passes budget
As he joins ward colleagues Ken Gowans (SNP), Duncan Macpherson (Highland Alliance) and Andrew Sinclair (Conservatives), it comes at a time when the council is facing many challenges including huge budget pressures against a background of the cost-of-living crisis and a climate emergency.
So who is Cllr McDonald?
Aged 62, he has been married to Sue, a dental nurse, for 39 years this year and has two sons and two grandchildren.
Although he may be a newcomer to the council, he brings with him an impressive set of life experiences including travelling the world with the Royal Logistics Corps and later teaching people to scuba dive in Egypt.
He is a great believer in “having a go”.
“I enjoy doing things,” he reflected.
“I always say if you get an opportunity, you should do it.”
Inverness-born, he attended Hilton Primary School and Inverness High School although the family spent five years between 1972-77 in South Africa where he first played rugby.
On the family’s return to Inverness, his father returned to working as a butcher at Duncan Fraser’s butcher’s shop in Queensgate.
Young Duncan joined the Army as a private and worked his way up through the ranks before being commissioned in later life as a major.
During his time in the Royal Logistics Corps, his postings included Germany, Canada and the UK and he also completed various tours including Afghanistan, Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo.
He specialised in human resources and was responsible for 1700 civilian staff to support all aspects of British Army garrisons in Germany.
His role also involved procurement and arranging shipping, rail and road logistics services in support of NATO peacekeeping projects and British Army overseas exercises and providing humanitarian aid to countries and regions in need.
Cllr McDonald acknowledged that life in the Army meant moving frequently and that sometimes he had envied people who had a more settled life but said it added up to life experience.
“You meet different people in different environments in different places across the world,” he said. “It definitely does broaden your understanding of people.”
He felt his Army background could be useful as he takes on his council role.
“Any life experience is useful,” he said.
“Dealing with different people and different things is always something which broadens your skills base.”
When he left the Army in 2012, he used his resettlement package to go to Egypt and trained to become a scuba diving instructor.
“We were going to go to Egypt for three months as a break from Army life before starting anything else,” he said.
“I stayed for one-and-a-half years teaching people to dive.
“My office was the beach!”
After they returned to the Highlands, he and his wife took a train from Inverness to Glasgow and walked back via the West Highland Way and the Great Glen Way, wild camping and carrying everything themselves.
Their love of travel has taken them around the world and they once travelled around south east Asia for six months.
“We call ourselves OAP backpackers!” he joked.
They then bought and ran Corunna Guest House in Glenurquhart Road - across the road from Highland Council’s headquarters - which they sold after four years at the end of 2019, a few months before lockdown began and moved to the Slackbuie/Culduthel area.
Now semi-retired, he has spent the last three summers with Scottish Canals, working as a relief lock-keeper at Muirtown Bridge and Muirtown Locks and occasionally covering Dochgarroch Locks.
Added to that, he has a wealth of other experience and interests.
He was a keen marathon runner and has run the Berlin Marathon 10 times - plus six times as a double starter as an inline skater on the Saturday night and running it the next morning.
He is also a recreational golfer and was the treasurer and vice president at the former Torvean Golf Club.
After it moved to the new Kings Golf Club as part of the Inverness West Link developments, he was invited back as treasurer and steered it to a more financially stable position. Recently he was appointed the club’s president.
At the age of 48, he took up ice hockey and is also a hockey umpire.
He also brings with him expertise as a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, with a Masters degree in strategic human resources, and is also a Justice of the Peace although he will now have to stand down from that role due to having been elected as a councillor.
He previously stood for election to Highland Council in the Inverness West ward but was unsuccessful which he attributed to being insufficiently known.
He explained what motivated him to stand for election.
“I have always been interested in helping others and getting people to achieve as much as they can, and being open and honest with people,” he said.
“I think if you are open and honest with people, they understand why you are doing some things and are more able to accept it.
“I think one of the things lacking in the council is that they make decisions with all good intentions but they are not explained to the public.
“It makes it very difficult for them.
“If they can achieve that by being more open, it will help.”
