Isle of Skye

The Isle of Skye is a magical place. It is amazingly under populated and the scenery is rugged and unforgiving. We stayed in the town of Portree and ventured about the island for a few days. Skye is full of big open rolling mountains with sparse foliage and a few villages scattered about. The ground is rock with a six to twenty-four inch layer of peat.

We visited the Talisker Whiskey distillery and learned how they make single malt whiskey. We were warned to stay out of the pub across the street from the police station in Portree because that is where the “rough locals who like to fight hang out.” After a nice dinner, we headed over to the rough local pub for some home town entertainment. There was not much in the way of fighting there but we were told some great stories about Skye from some of the local fisherman. They hate the French and the English in Scotland so that is probably who gets roughed up when they wander into the pub. They all had relatives living in the US.

“The most powerful clans on Skye in the post-Norse period were Clan MacLeod, originally based in Trotternish, and Clan MacDonald of Sleat. The MacDonalds of South Uist were bitter rivals of the MacLeods, and the attempt by the former to murder church-goers at Trumpan in retaliation for a previous massacre on Eigg, resulted in the Battle of the Spoiling Dyke of 1578.[42][43] After the failure of the Jacobite rebellion of 1745 Flora MacDonald became famous for rescuing Prince Charles Edward Stuart from the Hanoverian troops. Although she was born on South Uist her story is strongly associated with their escape via Skye and she is buried at Kilmuir in Trotternish. Skye was visited by Samuel Johnson and James Boswell during their 1773 Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland. Boswell wrote of their visit to Kilmuir that "To see Dr. Samuel Johnson, the great champion of the English Tories, salute Miss Flora MacDonald in the isle of Sky, was a striking sight; for though somewhat congenial in their notions, it was very improbable they should meet here.[44] Written on her gravestone are Johnson's words that hers was "A name that will be mentioned in history, and if courage and fidelity be virtues, mentioned with honour".[45] In the wake of the rebellion the clan system was broken up and Skye became a series of landed estates.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Skye

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