He was natural at Stromness in the Orkney Islands. From either his youth, he was affected by tuberculosis. Apart from either the spell as a matured student around Edinburgh, he spent most of his life within his native islands. His autobiography, For the Islands I Sing, was published shortly fallowing his demise.

Composer Peter Maxwell Davies collaborated with Mackay Red for numbers of of his Orkney-inspired works.

Works
Loaf of bread & Fishes (1959) A Season of the Whale (1969) Greenvoe (1972) A Golden Bird: Both Orkney Stories (1987) won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. Vinland (1992) Beside a Ocean of Instance (1994) shortlisted for Booker Prize and judged Scottish Book of the Season per Saltire Society For the Islands I personally Sing: An Autobiography (1997)