She’s played her part in making some of the best cheese in Scotland.
She’s also an expert driver – behind the wheel and on the golf course.
If Dalbeattie’s Sheila McMurtrie isn’t on the fairway, she’ll be taking L-plate rookies round the town.
And at 61, the mother-of-three and grannie-of-two still hits a mean ball off the tee.
She’s just won the ladies championship at Dalbeattie Golf Club for an incredible 40th time – the last 30 of those being consecutively.
Sheila’s still a top player – thanks to a work ethic woven through her life in Dalbeattie which once upon a time was Galloway’s biggest industrial centre.
Hundreds were employed in the Stelrads radiator works, the Lybro clothing factory and Dalbeattie creamery, where, I learn, Sheila started work aged 17 in 1978.
One of seven McDonald children – three girls and four boys – Sheila had grown up beside St Peter’s Primary where her father Jim was headmaster.
“He was a maths teacher at Dalbeattie High School and moved over to be the headmaster at St Peter’s when they changed to the new school,” Sheila tells me.
“Mum – she was Sheila too – and dad managed to buy the schoolhouse alongside the school and I remember flitting there in 1966 or 1967.”
The imposing granite building on Maxwell Street closed as a place of learning in 2016.
But last month it became the new home of local theatre group Birchvale – a change which Sheila is glad to see.
“Birchvale have been really nice,” she says.
“Mum and dad have been given memberships because they are in with the bricks.
“I’m just delighted the building is being used by the community and it’s definitely going to bring more life into the town.
“It’s lovely to see a bit of life about it again – the theatre is absolutely stunning.”
At St Peter’s, Sheila was taught by her dad from P5-7 before moving up to the high school.
In the early 1970s Dalbeattie was an S1 to S4 school so pupils looking to do Highers went elsewhere – in Sheila’s case Kirkcudbright.
“I did my fifth year but by the time I got to sixth year I thought higher education was not for me,” she says.
“I saw a job advert in the Galloway News for a lab assistant at Dalbeattie Creamery and I applied.
“That would be 1978 and I was interviewed by Bobby Stewart the manager.
“There were other folk in for it but I got the job.”
Sheila has fond memories of her 11 years at the creamery which, to the anger of many, was shut down in 1988.
The young lab worker worked upstairs under Lessie Henderson – and the small team of three played a vital role in ensuring the creamery produced cheese of the highest quality and flavour.
Jobs in the lab were many and varied, from testing the milk on arrival to taking core samples from newly formed cheese.
“When the tankers came in we would take the temperature of the milk to make sure it was acceptable,” Sheila recalls.
“We would also test it for antibiotics given to the cows to treat infections like mastitis.
“We had to make sure the milk was free from them because they could stop the starter culture working on the milk.
“After the culture is added the liquid should be thick and lumpy by the next day.
“But antibiotics would prevent the culture from growing and the curds would not set properly.”
Production was downstairs at Dalbeattie, with big vats on the floor in which the milk naturally separated into curds and whey.
“The drained curd from the vats would be put through a milling machine which would cut them into chips,” recalls Sheila.
“They would go into a mixer and after salt was added would be poured through a funnel into metal chissets on a conveyor.
“The chissets were on a scale and once the right weight was reached they were moved along and lids put on them.
“They would then be laid on their side end to end and hydraulically pressed together to squeeze out excess liquid overnight.
“Next morning the cheeses would be chapped out of the chissets and we would take random samples made from each vat so that records could be kept for future reference.
“The cheeses would then be put on the conveyor to get wrapped, sealed and boxed.
“Each box would have a batch number and date of production on it.
“We would also swab milk pipes to make sure everything was free from harmful bacteria.
“And everybody had to wear protective whites – trousers, hats, shirts, nets and coats.”
People transporting the milk were an important first link in the chain – which meant any industrial action had serious consequences, Sheila tells me.
“The tanker drivers would take samples from each individual farm to make sure the quality was the standard we needed.
“Away back many years ago there was a tanker drivers’ strike and the farmers from all different corners of the area were trying to get their milk in.
“The cows were still producing and some of the farmers were bringing the milk in churns.
“It was during the snow and I remember one tractor coming in towing a trailer with a big plastic tank full of milk on it.
“He went to reverse but he turned too quick and the tank fell off the back and smashed all over the place.
“That was one farmer who did not get his milk measured that day!”
Dalbeattie entered cheeses in shows all over the country – and more often than not claimed an award.
“It was really good mature cheese,” Sheila says.
“We also made traditional Stilton cheeses which were bandaged up by experts who painted them and polished them for shows.
“It was a fine art getting the cheeses ready.
“They were stored in the cheese loft at a cool temperature on big wooden racks which would be turned over from time to time so the cheeses would ripen evenly.
“Graders would also come in regularly and take a core from a cheese in a certain batch.
“They would squeeze it and feel it in their fingers – they knew how well a cheese was maturing by its texture, taste and smell.
“That particular cheese would then be checked against your records to see if it was as good as the last time.
“We won lots of rosettes and prizes at the big shows.”
Surprisingly, I learn that Dalbeattie carried a staff of just over 30 – although temporary workers were hired in the summer when milk yields were highest.
“It was like a wee family and very closely knit,” says Sheila.
“It was a really nice place to work in and everybody got on.
“The majority of the folk I worked with would always turn round and say it was the best job we ever had.
“We took a real pride in the place.”
In 1988 Sheila was pregnant with eldest daughter Megan when the Scottish Milk Marketing Board closed down Dalbeattie amid a milk shortage caused by quotas.
“A lot of the staff were made redundant and just a handful went to Kirkcudbright Creamery,” she recalls sadly.
“We had a connection to Kirkcudbright through the SMMB and used to have a joint annual do about November time where we would get to meet some of the Kirkcudbright workers.
“I got my redundancy but everybody was just gutted.
“I don’t think it had anything to do with what we were doing – the decision came from above.
“Somebody decided it and that was that.”
Sheila got married in 1987 and Megan came along a year later.
When the marriage ended in the 1990s she found herself as a single parent with two young daughters and a baby boy.
“I did not want to be on benefits for long – I would far rather be working,” she says candidly.
“So when Luke got to school age I felt I needed to go out and start earning some money.
“Driving had always been at the back of my mind but until then I did not have the time or the opportunity to do it.
“I also wanted to give the kids a wee bit of a work ethic and started training to be a driving instructor.
“I had three exams to pass – a theory test, a practical test and a role play where I had to teach my examiner how to drive!
“The company in Carlisle that trained asked me to be on their books as a franchisee. But I decided to go out on my own and set up Sheila’s Driving School in 2007. That way I could work my hours round the kids.
“I’m very rarely without a waiting list and could work seven days a week – but that’s not what I’m wanting.
“You have to adapt to each learner – no two folk learn at the same pace,” Sheila explains.
“But the best pupils are the ones who are keen to learn. I love it when they pass their test. I had one parent, a mother of five kids, who lived outside the town in a cottage and whose husband worked away.
“She was stuck in the house and trapped more than normal because of Covid.
“You could tell if she got her licence what a difference it would make to her life and her husband.
“She passed a few months ago and now she’s never off the road.”
In a life full of special challenges, a big one came when younger daughter Sarah was born profoundly deaf.
“I first sensed something was not right When she was about five months old,” she recalls.
“I would shout ‘Sarah’ as I walked up to her cot but she would have this startled look on her face when I came into her view.
“You could tap the floor behind her when she was sitting and she would turn round – but only because she could feel the vibration.
“Our GP referred us to ENT in Dumfries where they said it was glue ear.
“But grommets made no difference and Sarah was confirmed deaf.
“We wanted to get as much help as possible and I started signing right away.
“It was difficult but I got a lot of support.
“Schoolwork for the Deaf was a great help and Teachers for the Deaf were coming in as well.
“I joined a National Deaf Children’s Society support group in Dumfries and met a couple from Moffat whose daughter had a cochlear implant.
“I thought I’ll look into that – and we were referred to Crosshouse Hospital in Kilmarnock where they checked Sarah’s cochlea and said she would be suitable for one.
“There’s always a risk with surgery, facial paralysis for example, but you put your trust in the medical team and it was a success.
“Sarah was only two and a half and the youngest in Scotland to get one at that time.
“She still lip reads even though she has got the implant.
“She’s 30 now and doing great and has her own place in Castle Douglas.
“She’s the chef at the Market Inn, which is managed by Megan and her wife Emma – it’s a real family–run hotel.
“My son Luke is 23 and is training to be a PE teacher at Moray House in Edinburgh.
“He’ll be starting a seven-week placement at Castle Douglas High School after the October holidays.”
Sporting excellence certainly seems to run in Sheila’s family, I learn.
“My dad was a really good footballer and he played for Threave,” she tells me.
“All the kids are sporty and I have a sister Maureen who won the ladies championship at Dalbeattie Tennis Club 33 times.
“One year she and I jointly won the Stewartry sports personality of the year award.”
Dalbeattie Golf Club remains an important part of Sheila’s life – both in sporting and social terms.
“It’s a great bunch of women up there – and the men are great too,” she smiles.
“It’s a really friendly atmosphere on and off the course. I have played for the Galloway team as well since I was young.”
Modestly, Sheila tells me she was South of Scotland ladies champion in 1983 and 1984.
And she intends playing for a long time yet – but work will be put away in the locker.
“I saw a gentleman from Cumbria on TV who said he was still a driving instructor at 81,” she laughs. “I’ll not be doing that when I’m 81 – but hopefully I’ll still be golfing.”
