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Skye - Eilean a' Cheò, The Misty Isle

Skye - Eilean a' Cheò, The Misty Isle

Skye is the largest of Scotland's Inner Hebrides, covering 670 square miles. There is no part of Skye that is more than 5 miles from the sea. what does the enchanting name "Skye" (Pronounced sky-ah) mean? It could be from the wing-like shape of the island, since skeitos/sgiath means wing. Or it could be from the Celtic skia and neach (sword people) from the root word "sci" meaning cut, since the coastline has rugged and ragged slashes of sealochs and bays. It could even be taken from the days of Norse occupation, "sky" to mean a cloud island.

When the huge sheets of ice rolled away from this land 10,000 years ago, they stripped the rocks, carved out great straths that held the liquid meltings of another age, and left behind vast stretches of sand and gravel. The terrain is mostly hilly all over the island. Most of the hills are under 450 meters but the highest points, the Black Cuillins, go up to 3,257 feet at the peak of Sgurr Alasdair. Southern Skye is the most fertile and sheltered part of the island, which includes the Sleat peninsula often referred to as The Garden of Skye. The span of the island from southernmost Sleat to northernmost Rubha Hunish is just 50 miles. The south is mountainous, the northeast has strangely shaped basalt formations, and the northwest has dizzying cliffs and narrow fingers of land pushing out to the sea. There is nowhere else in the British Isles that contains so many different landscapes in one small area. There are moors, mountains, long winding valleys, fertile glens, steep-sided fjords, sweeping bays, weirdly sculpted stone pinnacles, darkly deep lochs and wild waterfalls.

ISLAND IDYLL by Calum MacNeil
Below me like resting wings -
feathery, hazy and white-
lies the Island,
a huge bird in the mists
kept dry and at home
in the sea.

The earliest people to come to Skye arrived about 8000 years ago. They were nomadic fisherfolk, probably drawn to the island by its rich and diverse bounties of land and sea. Small and isolated communities sporadically appeared and disappeared along the coasts until 3000 years later, when the advent of agriculture brought the distant groups of people together in farming communities. With greater numbers of people banding together, the neolithic society grew more complex, developing hierarchies and structured religious rituals. The remnants of this society can still be seen today in the chambered burial cairns and stone circles scattered across the island.

These structures were in more or less constant use through the early part of the Bronze Age (second millenium BC). Near the end of that millenium, climatic changes apparently resulted in the disintegration of the social order of this age. Bronze spears, swords and axes became plentiful, along with development of the first defensible enclosures, the first hillforts or duns. On the island of Skye, the best position for these duns was near the coast at the sheltered end of any of the many narrow inlets.

The broch is the most unique structures to be built during this time of fortified enclosures. The earliest brochs were constructed about halfway through the first millenium BC. These were circular towers with very thick walls which had only one entrance hall protected by a heavy wooden door. Inside there were rooms and connecting stairs between the levels.

Skye is first mentioned in recorded history by a visit from St. Columba in the sixth century AD. At that time, it was apparently occupied by the Picts, whose distinct social structure developed in isolation from the Britons and Dalriadic Scots. Irish raiders as well as missionaries were the earliest outsiders coming to Skye, followed in the early ninth century by the Scandinavians. Northern Skye, especially, has many place names of Norse origin as well as coin hoards and Norse style burials. The sagas clearly mention brutal raids on Skye, which resulted in over 300 years of rulership under Norway's kings. In 1263, Norway's King Haakon was defeated by Alexander III at the Battle of Largs, but rulership of Skye was still contested for almost another 300 years by inter-clan feuds.

After Skye was taken from Scandinavian rule, the clan chiefs and feudal lords continued to build defensive structures, which evolved from brochs and dun to medieval castles. With the rise of Christianity, monasteries and cathedrals also became centers for communities.


In early Irish literature, this island was known as the home of Sgathaich (Scathach) who instructed Cuchulainn in warrior skills. The Irish name for a fort on Skye was Dun Scathiag, named after her, and the ruins of Dunscaith, once belonging to the barons of Sleat, is said to have also been hers.

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Skye - Eilean a' Cheò, The Misty Isle

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