International Women’s Day

Baroness MacLeod of Camusdarach Excerpts

Friday 6th March 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness MacLeod of Camusdarach (Lab) (Maiden Speech)]

My Lords and Ladies—I reckon that, if my noble friends Lady Linforth, Lady Hunter and Lady O’Grady can talk about Lords and Ladies, I can do so too—it is a great privilege to make my maiden speech on International Women’s Day, to stand among so many women who have championed women’s rights in and out of Parliament, and to join my esteemed colleagues making their maiden speeches too. I do not know if they have found it as daunting as me.

Before I go further, I would like to thank Garter, and Black Rod and his staff, who have helped and supported me since I arrived in this bewildering place. They are especially kind and helpful, and nothing seems to be too much trouble. My noble friend Lady Linforth put it well—it seems to be very difficult to go anywhere without asking for help—but I must say that my colleagues on both sides of the House have been incredibly helpful. The noble Baroness, Lady Goldie, actually took me by the hand to take me to a meeting in the House of Commons. I also thank my noble friends Lord Robertson of Port Ellen and Lady Liddell of Coatdyke, who supported my introduction to the Lords. They are both very fine public servants and I am indebted to them.

I was a journalist for many years and spent 15 years in the parliamentary lobby. I am the first chair of the lobby to reach the House of Lords, and I shall be pleased to champion the rights and needs of journalists in and out of Parliament. We need good journalism, we need to ward against fake news, and we need to protect public service broadcasting.

In 2007, I was privileged to join Chancellor Alistair Darling as a special adviser in the Treasury. Alistair was a serious politician, a man of great integrity who showed us all how politics could be practised with dignity and respect.

I was born in Glencoe. My mother, a teacher, was from Kinlochleven in Argyll and my father, a police officer, had hailed from Achiltibuie on the Coigach peninsula in Wester Ross. I called myself Baroness MacLeod of Camusdarach—its English translation is “the bay of oaks”—because Camusdarach in Lochaber is a place dear to my heart and very close to where I grew up, looking out to the south end of Skye and to Eigg and Rùm.

I spent the first 10 years of my life in Mallaig, and I was lucky to be brought up in a community where hard work and intelligence were highly respected. There were clever teachers, doctors, ministers and priests, clever fishermen who knew how to find fish, ships’ captains who daily ploughed the Minch, fish salesmen, train drivers, tradesmen, crofters, storytellers, musicians and community stalwarts. Most of them had never seen the inside of a London club or any of the hallowed corridors of power. It is a pity that the two worlds were so divided; as ever, the policymakers could learn a lot from people on the ground.

Women in these communities played a pivotal role. Often, their partners were at sea and times were tough, but they brought up their children and coped with the daily challenges of worrying about bad weather and the uncertainty of boats landing safely. Often, they had jobs outside the home, gutting fish or working in hotels. All were striving to put food on the table. Despite the hardships, their spirits remained mostly undiminished and they enriched the fabric of our lives. These people are the forebears of the people who are still keeping the Highlands alive against the odds. The Highlands have huge potential, but their development is hindered by neglect and a growing lack of investment. If they are going to prosper, and they could lead the renewables revolution in the United Kingdom, that needs to change.

So too does the establishment’s attitude to the Gaelic language, still surviving against the odds. I should declare an interest because I am on the development trust of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, the National Centre for the Gaelic Language and Culture, on Skye. I want to acknowledge the contribution made by our Lord Speaker when he was in another place; he was one of the few UK politicians to understand the need for investment in Gaelic. To survive, it still desperately needs help. It has always struck me as odd that in London we can be exercised about losing famous paintings and other memorabilia but sit back while the UK’s oldest spoken language withers on the vine and, with it, its traditions, music and poetry.

One of the great cultural successes in the Highlands is a recent musical revival. Musicians travel all over the world, proudly sharing their tremendous ability and their cultural inheritance in English and Gaelic. Since Brexit, travelling in Europe is more difficult for them. We must try to make it easier.

Women are pivotal to keeping the language and culture alive. Today, as we celebrate International Women’s Day, a momentous celebration of women is taking place, almost as I speak, in Achiltibuie, the place in which my father was born and brought up. A magnificent work of public art, Lorg na Còigich, or the Footprint of Coigach, created by award-winning Will Maclean and Marian Leven, is being erected to commemorate the women who played leading roles against the evictions during the Highland clearances of the late 19th century. Too often, women were conspicuously absent from official documents and records, so, nearly 200 years later, it is heartening to see their tremendous contribution recognised.

During 1852 and 1853, five attempts were made by sheriff officers to remove tenants from the land that their families had worked for generations. At the forefront of the rebellion were the formidable women of Coigach. They were described by the Inverness Courier as “a band of Amazons”. Their descendants still live in Coigach, as do my cousins.

Each time the official parties arrived by boat bearing the summons of removing, the people, particularly the women, were ready. They seized and burned the writs. On one occasion, the sheriff officer was, in the words of the outraged factor,

“entirely stripped of his clothes and put back aboard the boat”.

Katie MacLeod is said to have removed the shoes of the sheriff officer to check he had not hidden any paper there, and he was later thrown into the sea. She paid a high price: she was barred from the estate and was forced to build a house below the high-water mark, so it was frequently flooded. Today, stones from her house are included in the splendid memorial.

The Lorg na Còigich memorial, then, in the north- west of Scotland, overlooking the Summer Isles in Loch Broom, is extra special in many ways. It is beautifully designed, has been built by local stonemasons and was funded by the community’s efforts. Some stones were even hauled from the seabed. So it is a matter of great satisfaction to me that I have the opportunity to speak in the House of Lords today to pay tribute to my courageous forebears and celebrate women everywhere who do so much to strengthen and support our communities.