FARMER and Clydesdale enthusiast, Hugh Black Dunlop, of South Biggart, Lugton, passed away peacefully on December 22, 2018, in his 93rd year.

Hugh was the third child to John and Elizabeth Dunlop, Blackwater Farm, Kilmacolm. He came home to work at the age of 14 and continued to farm at Blackwater in partnership with his brother, before moving to North Ayrshire in 1962 after purchasing South Biggart.

Although this was a new start for Hugh, he still made long trips back and forth to Blackwater in a tractor with an open cab to share machinery. Dairying was the forefront of his business at South Biggart. He started out with just 14 cows and went on to sell their calves, as well as prime lambs on a Monday at Paisley market ,which in turn paid for more dairy heifers to increase the herd.

In the 1980s, Hugh sold Friesian heifers at Lanark which regularly topped the sale, and he also fattened cattle and ran a commercial sheep flock. Around that time, he purchased land at the nearby Lugton Inns and, in 1996, bought Greenend Farm.

Hugh always had a strong passion for Clydesdales and with the encouragement of his cousin, the late Hugh Black, of Collessie, Cupar, he purchased Millhouse Moss Rose (Rosie) in 1981 at the Winter Fair, Ingliston, from the late Richard Scott, Hartree Mill, Biggar. This was the beginning of a new chapter in his life, breeding and showing Clydesdales at local shows, and travelling as far as Drymen and Perth.

His biggest win was when Rosie stood first in her class at the Royal Highland Show as a two-year-old filly. Hugh was asked to judge at many local shows throughout his life and enjoyed a trip to Northern Ireland to judge at the Coleraine Show.

During his retirement, along with his wife Aileen, he enjoyed holidays to Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and every summer made the annual trip to Nairn Show, carrying out his last judging stint there in 2009.

In addition to being a dedicated farmer, he was a devoted family man and is survived by Aileen, his wife of 52 years, daughter Irene (Macarthur) and husband Ewen, his son Iain, who continues to run the farm with wife Aileen, and his five grand-daughters, Lynne, Katrina, Anne, Isla and Evie.

KM