Despite a busy life rubbing shoulders with royalty of both the traditional and musical variety, Marc Ellington painstakingly brought a ruined north-east castle back to life.
That will be his legacy, following his death on Wednesday, aged 75.
Mr Ellington, who bought Towie Barclay Castle, near Turriff, alongside his wife Karen, in the 1960s, spent years rebuilding it into a family home for them and their two daughters Iona and Kirstie.
The restoration project, given a Saltire Award in 1973, inspired my Ellington to set up the Scottish Traditional Skills Training Centre aimed at encouraging students to learn traditional skills such as stonemasonry.
He served as a board member of the Government’s Historic Buildings Council, Grampian Enterprise, the British Heritage Committee and the Heritage Lottery Fund for Scotland.
He held other roles as a trustee of the National Galleries of Scotland, non-executive director of Historic Scotland, board member of Banff and Buchan College and Depute Lieutenant of Aberdeenshire over the years.
He received an honorary doctorate from Aberdeen University in 2014.
He was, however, a native of Boston, Massachusetts. where he was born in 1945 to a radio broadcaster father, Frank, and speech therapist mother Harriette.
The family moved to the UK in 1967, where Mr Ellington enjoyed fame on the folk music scene, recording with the likes of Fairport Convention and Byrds, and releasing multiple solo albums.
Mr Ellington followed his father into broadcasting, too, with his own show on Grampian TV called Marc Time.
In his later years he continued to perform, most recently taking to the stage in London’s Royal Albert Hall for a concert to celebrate fellow folk musician Richard Thompson’s 70th birthday.
But away from the limelight, he enjoyed sailing his boat in the North Sea, and was a regular commentator at the Portsoy Boat Festival.
He is survived by his wife, daughters, four grandsons Archie, Hugo, Angus and Hamish.
