Career
Born and raised on Harris in the Outer Hebrides, and a native Gaelic language speaker, was an important figure in Gaelic radio and television broadcasting, founding the Gaelic Drama Association. He co-founded the quarterly Gaelic magazine Gairm in 1951 with Derick Thomson and served as its chief editor until 1964. Macdonald edited A Journey to the Western Isles (1983), in which he "retraced" the 1773 tour of Scotland by Samuel Johnson and James Boswell by providing the text of Johnson"s A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland along with his own commentary and numerous colour and black-and-white photographs.
He was a radio and television producer.
He wrote three books of memoirs that recall his childhood on the island of Harris:
Crowdie and Cream (1982)
Crotal and White (1983)
The Corncrake and the Lysander (1985). These have been cited as providing a valuable insight into life in the Outer Hebrides in the inter-war years.