Island in Scottish Highlands, Scotland
Isle of Skye
A prince in a maid's dress, a fairy flag that saved a clan and a mountain ridge that needs ropes: Skye's Gaelic name means Isle of Mist, and the stories are just as hard to pin down.
Key information
- County
- Scottish Highlands
- Nation
- Scotland
- Population
- about 10,000 (2011 Census)
- Area
- About 1,650 square kilometres, the largest of the Inner Hebrides
- Known for
- The Cuillin, the Old Man of Storr, the Quiraing, Talisker whisky, Dunvegan Castle
- What locals are called
- Skyemen and Skye women; Sgitheanaich in Gaelic
- Famous people
- Flora MacDonald, Màiri Mhòr nan Òran, Bonnie Prince Charlie (as a fugitive visitor)
About Isle of Skye
The island that wears a mist for a name
Skye is the biggest of the Inner Hebrides and the most photographed. Its Gaelic poetic name, Eilean a' Cheò, means the Isle of Mist, and it earns it. Weather rolls off the Atlantic and wraps the hills in cloud, then lifts to show lochs, sea cliffs and rock formations that look as if a film set designer had been let loose. The island's shape is odd: a body with long peninsulas stretching out like the arms of a starfish, so that no spot is far from the sea. Portree, the main village and harbour, sits on the east coast with its row of painted houses facing the water. Since 1995 a bridge from Kyle of Lochalsh has linked Skye to the mainland. Before that you crossed by ferry. Tolls on the bridge sparked a long local campaign, and they were scrapped in 2004.
Peaks that need ropes, and a pinnacle that looks like a person
The Black Cuillin are Britain's most demanding mountains. They are jagged gabbro ridges rising straight from the sea, and the highest point, Sgùrr Alasdair, stands at 992 metres. It is named after Alexander Nicolson, who made the first recorded ascent in 1873. Traversing the whole ridge is one of the great UK mountaineering challenges, and the Inaccessible Pinnacle on Sgùrr Dearg is the only Munro that needs real climbing skill. On the Trotternish peninsula the scenery turns surreal. The Old Man of Storr is a rock pinnacle of roughly 50 metres, left standing as the hillside around it slid away. Nearby, the Quiraing is a vast landslip, still moving, with grassy plateaus hidden among its crags. At the Fairy Pools near Glen Brittle, glassy blue waterfalls step down from the Cuillin. At Staffin, dinosaur footprints are preserved in the rock, a reminder that Skye was a very different place in the Jurassic.
A fairy flag and a very old castle
Dunvegan Castle has been the seat of the chiefs of Clan MacLeod for around 800 years, making it one of the oldest continuously inhabited castles in Scotland. Its star exhibit is the Fairy Flag, a tattered silk banner. Legend says it was given to a chief by the fairies and could be waved to save the clan in times of need, but only three times. Skye was part of the Norse world long before the MacLeods and MacDonalds carved it up, and it only passed to the Scottish crown after the Treaty of Perth in 1266. Norse-derived place names such as Trotternish still carry that Viking echo. The island is also a Gaelic stronghold. Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, a Gaelic-medium college in Sleat, teaches in the language, and Gaelic is still part of daily life on Skye.
Over the sea to Skye: a prince, a heroine and a song
In June 1746, after defeat at Culloden, Bonnie Prince Charlie was a hunted man. Flora MacDonald helped smuggle him from the Outer Hebrides to Skye, dressing him as an Irish maid called Betty Burke. She was arrested for it and later released, and she became a Jacobite heroine. She is buried at Kilmuir on Skye. The story inspired the Skye Boat Song, written in 1884 by Harold Boulton, set to an old rowing tune. It remains one of Scotland's best-known songs. Skye also produced a great Gaelic voice in Màiri Mhòr nan Òran (Big Mary of the Songs), born at Skeabost in 1821. Her songs championed the crofters and condemned the Clearances.
The crofters who fought the law, and won
Skye's population was once far bigger. In the 1800s, landlords cleared tenants to make way for sheep, and many families emigrated. At Glendale in the north-west, crofters pushed back. The Battle of the Braes in April 1882 saw crofters near Portree clash with police over grazing rights. It was a turning point. The government sent in a commission, and the Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act of 1886 gave tenants security of tenure, a landmark in Highland land rights. The legacy is a landscape of crofting townships, small white houses with strips of land, that still shape life on the island.
Whisky, langoustines and shinty
Talisker, Skye's oldest distillery, has been making whisky at Carbost on Loch Harport since 1830. Its peppery, sea-spray character is among the most recognisable malts in Scotland. The seafood is just as good. Langoustines, scallops and crab come straight off local boats, and Skye restaurants such as the Three Chimneys at Colbost helped make the island a destination for Scottish food. The Skye terrier, a long-haired dog breed, takes its name from the island. Sport here means shinty, the Highland stick-and-ball game that is cousin to Irish hurling. Skye Camanachd, based in Portree, fields teams, and a shinty match in the island's wind and drizzle is an essential experience.