Mervyn Knox-Browne, of Milton of Ardtalnaig Farm, South Loch Tay, who was a much-loved and revered member of the Highland Perthshire community, passed away in November, at the age of 95.

To spend time with Mervyn was to step away from the stress of our media-bombarded lives and to revel in his wit, wisdom and kindness, and contemplative nature, the changing seasons, rural life in remote communities, and stories and legends associated with the hills and glens.

He could predict the weather from watching the hills and his close affinity and understanding of the lunar phases. He also knew the Gaelic names of every notable hill in Scotland and Ireland and could translate their meanings.

Mervyn epitomised the importance of retaining the oral tradition. He loved people, though also valued what others might see as isolation

Born in Cloghan, Glenfinn, Co Donegal, his childhood was spent exploring the 16 miles the family owned of the River Finn, one of the finest salmon rivers in Ireland, as well as 20,000 acres of hill and moor.

Later, his father took on Aughentaine, the family estate in Co Tyrone, and Cloghan was sold. Mervyn always struggled in his relationship with his strict disciplinarian father who had big ideas for how his life would shape up.

He sent him to boarding school at Glenalmond, where he missed home terribly, particularly his old keeper friend from Donegal, Donal McGlinn, a real character who chewed tobacco and had a unique take on life.

McGlinn taught Mervyn how to fish and to 'guddle'. They netted salmon and packed them into fern-lined boxes to transport them to the railway station using a wheelbarrow fitted with a bicycle wheel, minus tyre, so that it could run over the narrow-gauge railway line.

Due to his father’s pressure, Mervyn had a brief, unremarkable spell in the Army (RASC) before breaking free and forging a life working on the land. He would never return to live and work on the family estate and instead chose the life of a hill sheep farmer, leaving the trappings of his previous world far behind.

Mervyn worked Blackface sheep and beef cattle with his beloved collies and was happiest on the hills with his fellow shepherds. Patient and kind, many of the younger generations acknowledge his mentorship and its influence on their lives.

He worked on various farms before securing a full-time job on a remote farm on the Braes of Balquhidder. In 1954, he acquired Milton Farm and 500 acres, having asked the sceptical banker in Killin for a loan. In 1956, he married Catherine Ferguson and together, they farmed Milton.

He farmed sensitively with nature and planted numerous trees and hedgerows. He also built up a successful shoot and was considered an excellent shot.

One of his weather-related stories caused amusement when a group of shepherds and their collies regularly met above Balquhidder, where the Hydro Board's rain gauge was sited. Officials were baffled as to why there was an exceptionally high rainfall in that precise spot until Mervyn pointed out that the dogs were lifting their legs against the gauge.

In 1957, there was an opportunity for Mervyn to take on an auxiliary weather recording station on Loch Tay for the Met Office and the Climate-ological Observations Link. He kept data on the monthly rainfall, frost, minimum and maximum temperatures, hours of sun, wind speeds, and the densities of cloud cover.

His view of the dramatic Munros of the Ben Lawers group helped him provide data on snow patches too. After 60 years, the Met Office presented him with an award as one of their most valued and longest-serving Scottish recorders.

A former president of the Perth Area NFU, Mervyn also logged the arrivals and departures of avian migrants, the dates of the first frogspawn and various critical flowering plants, providing valuable information known as phenology for the Woodland Trust.

His records revealed a story of demise – numbers of swallows, house martins and swifts were crashing; gone were the haunting cries of the curlew and the annual arrival of lapwing, and the call of the cuckoo was becoming rare. He knew that this was due to man-made changes.

Like many farmers on marginal land, Mervyn diversified. He was closely involved in the forerunner of the Heather Trust – the Joseph Nickerson Reconciliation Project – alongside his friend, the late John Phillips, assisting him in early tick research.

He loved his role and later with the Heather Trust, which led to several years as the Scottish and Irish representative of Man Friday Helicopters (MFH), controlling bracken and advising landowners on how to carry out effective aerial spraying.

As a founding member, Mervyn remained vice-president of the Heather Trust and was an authority on the subject but nicknamed himself the 'revolting peasant', especially when the trust, as it had to be, became ever more scientific.

In 1999, Mervyn was awarded a MBE for services to the community and conservation. During his life, he had 22 collies and all were buried high on his farm overlooking Loch Tay – each grave marked with a red hawthorn.

In a moving ceremony appropriate to a gentleman who loved the land and his animals with all his heart, he was laid to rest beside them, surrounded by the elements and nature in the raw.

* A Service of thanksgiving will be held in Kenmore Church at 1.30pm on December 14, and afterwards at Fortingall Village Hall, to which all friends are respectfully invited. Donations if wished to the Charity Air Ambulance and RSABI.