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OVER THE SEA TO SKYE

By the time you go over the sea to Skye your are in the mood for the mysticism and the atmosphere of the place.
You will have already driven past Castles like Eilan Doonan in an impossibly beautiful setting and skirted the edge of massive mountains like the Five Sisters of Kintail.
The very names make wonder if there are stories to be told and indeed there are.

The Western Isles of Scotland have a deep rooted romantic appeal and some conscious of their ancestry, come visiting inspired by verse from the Canadian Boat Song...

From the lone sheiling of the Misty Isle,
mountains divide and a waste of seas,
yet still the blood is strong,
the heart is Highland,
and we in dreams behold the Hebrides

Approaching from mainland of Scotland this "Waste of Seas" is reduced to the short crossing from the Kyle of Lochach and even that stretch of fast water has now been tamed by a bridge.
There used to be a time when you boarded a ferry. It provded a pause, some moments to look around and take in the granduer of the mountains.
O n the short crossing more that a few romantics would be humming The Skye Boat Song..."Speed bonnie boat like a bird on the wing"
Well nowadays you get there swifter than a 'bird on the wing' you speed over the toll bridge. Taking into account the short journey it must rank as the most expensive in Europe - £11.40 for the return journey (free if you get out and walk!)

Skye, which is one of the largest of Scotlands islands is well known for its mountain scenery. Many years ago, chatting to a local I said that he must have thought himself lucky to live in such a beautiful place.
He replied "Aye, that is true, but you cannot be eating the scenery"

The island was then still in decline but since the early 1990s, there has been an expanding population and now there are around 14,000 people living on the island.

Tourism of course is the new cash crop. As a lad living in a different part of the Highlands and at the end of the season and weary of waiting on tables, I can remember smiling at the reputed 'Highland landlady's prayer, '
"Dear God, next year don't send the tourists, just send the money!"

It is a great place for walking and climbing in the mountains and if you want to see the "Five Sisters of Kintail" .

The view of them from the Glenelg road across Loch Duich is most impressive.

And the story? Well, according to legend there were originally seven sisters, daughters of a local farmer. Two were taken as brides by visiting brothers, who promised to send back their five other brothers for the remaining five sisters. But no one came, and to preserve their beauty while they waited, the sisters agreed to let the local wizard transform them into the peaks whose beauty has bewitched travellers ever since

Image produced from the Ordnance Survey Get-a-map service.
Image reproduced with kind permission of Ordnance Survey
and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland.

A good starting place, if you really want to get to know Skye,
"The island of Mist" (Eilean a Cheo in the Gaelic)
is at Duntulm where Johnathan MacDonald has his "Skye Museum of Island Life."

It is, in the opinion of many, the finest visitor attraction on the Isle of Skye, and there is also a useful booklet availble. As a first step I can recommend clicking into the web site at http://www.skyemuseum.co.uk/

The Museum is a group of seven thatched cottages exhibiting life on the Isle of Skye in former times. The exhibits relate mainly to the village life of ordinary people, but there are also items connected with the crofter rebellions in the nineteenth century, items used by Bonnie Prince Charlie and Flora MacDonald, weapons from the age of clan warfare, and even Stone Age axeheads used by Skye's earliest inhabitants.

We took the quiet road from the island capita,l Portee up to Duvegan to take over a friend's caravan convenienty sited at the side of the loch.

Close by was Dunvegan Castle the ancestral home of the Clan Macleod.

One of the relics there is a magical device "The Fairy Flag" The Flag was known to have supernatural properties. Three times could its possessors wave it to call for help in distress.
It has been waved on two occasions. The first time an infant MacLeod was at the point of death; the Flag was waved and the child recovered. The second time it was waved it rallied MacLeod's men to victory in battle.
The Flag has yet to be waved for the last time. When that occasion arises it is doubtful if the fabric will do more than fall in dust. Meantime it remains for all to see.

Well if it all sounds too wonderful, I must confess there is one "fly in the ointment," (would that there was only one. ) There can billions of midges.

If you dont know what a "midges" are, think of creatures that are not so kindly disposed or blood thirsty as mosquitoes.

We sheltered in the caravan, outside the only options would be to wear a fine net bag like hat over your head or to grab that fairy flag and command the invading horde to desist and go and dine on someone else!

Report by Allan Rogers.

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CONTACTS:
http://www.scotland-inverness.co.uk/skye.htm

http://www.isleofskye.org.uk/