Megan Boyd, who died on November 15th aged 86, was famed for the intricate fishing flies that she made for 50 years. Examples of her work are to be found in museums and are eagerly sought by collectors around the world.
She was honoured with an MBE but was unable to accept her award on the appointed day as she could find no one to look after her dog. Queen Elizabeth II was very understanding and the presentation was later made by Prince Charles.
Her attention to detail was legendary and every fly she tied had to be exactly right. Connoisseurs regarded them as "the Tiffanies of the 20th century".
Rosina Megan Boyd was born in England on January 29th 1915, the youngest of three children. The family moved to Brora in Scotland in 1918 when her father became a bailiff on a Sutherland estate.
She had little formal education but was at ease in any company. She had begun tying flies at the age of 12 under the guidance of her mentor, Bob Trussler. She quickly mastered the craft and in her hands it became an art.
At the age of 20 she moved to the village of Kintradwell to take up residence in a hillside cottage that overlooked the North Sea. She was to live there for 53 years. The cottage lacked running water and she felt no need for a telephone or television. It was not until 1985 that electricity was installed.
Her studio was a corrugated iron garden shed which one angling enthusiast described as "an Aladdin's cave, prinked with exotic plumage sent to her by admirers". Almost every day she worked by the light of a paraffin lamp for up to 16 hours at her workbench, a kidney-shaped dressing table.
The precision that characterised her work was captured in a letter to the Inverness Courier. Jimmie Ferard, a collector with over 2,000 examples of her work, wrote: "Her fly tying was unique. Surely one of the world's greatest perfectionists in this art. The trouble she took over just arranging the pieces of hair for a Stoat's Tail fly had to be seen to be believed. She used to put these hairs in the top of her lipstick holder with the ends sticking out and she said they should never be trimmed or cut as this was unnatural to the fish."
She made classic Scottish flies such as the Jack Scott, Silver Doctor and Durham Ranger as well as American favourites like the Green Butt and Woolly Hugger. Inventing a new tying was not a priority for her although she devised a fly that will ensure that her name will live on among salmon fishermen the world over.
What became known as the "Megan Boyd" is a blue and black fly that is reputed to attract salmon in high summer when conditions for angling are at their worst. Megan Boyd never fished herself saying, "I wouldn't kill a salmon if I got one." Yet her advice as to which fly was most appropriate for a particular stretch was sought even by anglers familiar with the Sutherland rivers.
She sold her flies for a pittance although they would have commanded high prices on the American market. Her first loyalty was to her original customers, neighbours who fished the local rivers and wrote their orders for flies on a pad at her doorstep. "As long as I was tying flies for the fishermen, which I started off doing to earn my daily bread, I kept doing it," she told the Atlantic Salmon Fly. "All the other orders had to go to the bottom of the pile."
Even Prince Charles had to go away empty-handed on one occasion when he wanted some flies in a hurry. Megan Boyd couldn't oblige as she was on her way to a village dance. He didn't take offence and last year he visited her at the nursing home where she spent her final years.
Megan Boyd was happy to share her vast knowledge of fly tying with anyone wishing to master the craft, but the one pupil who measured up to her high standards is now dead. "The modern ones just want to tie something quick and scrappy and sell it," she complained. She retired in 1985 due to failing eyesight.
Megan Boyd never married; she was predeceased by her siblings.
Megan Boyd: born 1915; died, November 2001