A lifetime of Islands: Island 2 - Skye, Inner Hebrides

Thursday 3 March 2011

Island 2 - Skye, Inner Hebrides

Skye was the second island I ever visited. My first visit was in 1974 but I have been there three times since - in 1977, 2006 and 2012. Skye is one of the largest Scottish islands and is very well known and well visited. In 2011 the population of the island was 10,008.

The island has six peninsulas:

Trotternish, Waternish and Duirnish in the northern half of the island
Minginish and Strathaird on the west coast
Sleat in the south.

The Skye Bridge has linked the eastern end of the island at Kyleakin to the mainland to the west of the town of Kyle of Lochalsh, via the island of Eilean Ban, since 1995. High toll charges for using the bridge were levied until 2004 when, after many protests the Scottish government purchased the bridge, which had been built under the Private Finance Initiative and abolished the tolls.

It is still possible to reach the island by vehicle ferry from Mallaig to Armadale or Glenelg to Kylerhea. Vehicle ferries also run from Sconser on Skye to the neighbouring island of Raasay and from Uig to Tarbert on Harris and Lochmaddy on North Uist.

Portree is the main town on the island and there is one whisky distillery - Talisker at Carbost on the Minginish Peninsula.

Skye has a wide variety of all types of holiday accommodation from youth hostels and campsites to self catering, guesthouses and hotels.

There are two surviving castles on Skye:

Dunvegan Castle has been the home of the MacLeod family for 800 years. The castle and its gardens are open to public and one of the MacLeod family's most treasured heirlooms is the Fairy Flag, which is said to have magical powers.
Armadale Castle is the home to the Clan Donald. The gardens are open to the public and the Museum of the Isles is located in the gardens.

There are two museums at Dunvegan: one dedicated to the real life giant Angus MacAskill, who was born in 1825 and grew to a height of 7'9" and a croft museum.

The Bright Water Visitor Centre at Kyleakin concentrates on the natural history of the area and neighbouring Eilean Ban and in particular on otters. Gavin Maxwell, author of Ring of Bright Water and other books, once owned Eilean Ban and boat trips to the island are run from the visitor centre.

Skye has been inhabited since at least the Mesolithic period.

In 1745 after the failure of the Jacobite Rebellion Flora McDonald helped Bonnie Prince Charlie to escape from Benbecula to Skye disguised as her maid.

Many people come to Skye for walking holidays and the island has some stunning landscape features:

The Black Cuillin in the west of the island has 12 Munros (Scottish mountains over 3,000 feet), including the infamous Inaccessible Pinnacle (Sgurr Dearg).
The Old Man of Storr, which is a rocky pinnacle is the south east corner of the Trotternish Peninsula
The Kilt Rock at Staffin is composed of vertical columns of basalt, which resemble the pleats of a kilt.
The Quiraing is located on the north east side of the Trotternish Peninsula - named features include The Needle, The Table and The Prison