Donald MacDonald was born in Tolsta in the Isle of Lewis in 1904 and educated in the local primary school then the Nicolson Institute in Stornoway. He went on to Jordanhill College to train as a teacher and during his life wrote two prominent books regarding his home village and his native island. Lewis – A History of the Island in 1978 and The Tolsta Townships in 1984. He was a fellow of both the Educational Institute of Scotland and the Royal Scottish Geography Society.
The notebooks contain tales which Donald Macdonald collected in the Barra, Eriskay and South Uist area.
There is an accompanying note with the notebooks from Calum Macleod explaining the notebooks were held by Rev. Dr T.M Murchison of Glasgow and that they were handed back to An Comunn Gàidhealach’s Glasgow office in December 1980.
The notebooks were given to him to check on some parts of them and he believes that all the tales were published in An Gaidheal during the Rev Malcolm Macleod’s editorship.