ARCHIE Gillies, who has died suddenly aged 45, was one of a dwindling number of traditional Highland deer stalkers who have no equal on the hill.
Archie Gillies - prince among stalkers.
I first met Archie in the autumn of 1996 when he came to Kingairloch, aged 26, as a seasonal ghillie to help and to gain experience on a large deer forest. It was obvious from the first day that there was nothing he could take from us - quite the opposite. With the blood of at least five generations of stalkers, fox-hunters and shepherds of the Rough Bounds coursing through his veins, it could hardly have been otherwise. There was no finer sight than watching Archie at work, moving slowly and silently across a hillside with the same skill and precision as a scalpel-wielding surgeon hovering around a spinal cord. Often he would vanish from view to reappear not just close to the deer but frequently among them - a difficult manoeuvre and a rare gift not given to many stalkers in a lifetime. With the eyesight of a golden eagle, the wisdom of a raven and the intelligence of a hill fox, Archie excelled in his objective and seldom failed.