The Isle of Skye. Terry Marsh

Island’s coastline, probed by many fjord-like lochs, that you are rarely far from the sea, and never more than 8km (5 miles).

      One of the earliest descriptions of Skye appeared in 1549, when Dean Munro wrote: ‘The iyle is callit by the Erishe, Ellan Skyane, that is to say in English, the Wingitt ile, be reason it has maney wings and points lyand furth frae it through the devyding of thir lochs.’

      The original derivation of the Island’s name is lost, but many hold that it comes from Sgiath, the Norwegian for ‘wing’, while others contend it derives from another Norwegian word ‘ski’, meaning a mist, hence ‘The Misty Isle’.

      Setting aside these fundamental controversies of nomenclature, which merely serve to spark the flame of Skye’s inordinate appeal, the Island is the most popular of all islands among tourists, mountaineers and walkers: botanists, photographers, natural history observers, too, find endless fascination within the bounds of Skye’s ragged coastline.

      The Coral Beach (Walk 4.11)

      Visiting walkers inevitably head for the Black Cuillin, unquestionably the most magnificent mountain group in Britain, yet there is so much more to Skye, and walking places, coastal and inland, are a perfect balance to the weight of the Cuillin. The most obvious of all the mountains on the Island are the Red Hills since the main road across the Island skirts around them. Once these are passed, however, you come into view of the Black Cuillin, a stark, jagged skyline that boldly impresses itself on the memory, yet when the cloud is down, they can be missed altogether. The contrast between the two Cuillin is remarkable: from a distance the Black Cuillin look like just one elongated mountain with a serrated edge, a badly formed saw, if you like. The Red Cuillin, on the other hand, are smooth-sided, generally singular and distinctive mountains. There is no danger of mistaking the two.

      The Island can be compartmentalised, as it has for this guide, into districts. Most southerly is Sleat, though this is strictly an old parish name. Sleat abuts Strath, which extends northwards and west to the major promontories of the Island – Minginish (which embraces the Cuillin), Duirinish, Waternish and Trotternish. The ‘nish’ ending is of Norse derivation, and means promontory.

      The Red Hills and the Cuillin Outliers lie within Strath, and more specifically a smaller promontory, owned by the John Muir Trust, Strathaird. Beyond the Cuillin and the Red Hills the highest peaks are close to Kyleakin, overlooking the mainland, while the most impressive form the long ridge of Trotternish.

      Elsewhere, abundant walking opportunity exists in all the main headlands and around the magnificent coastline; indeed the walk around the Duirinish coastline has few equals in Britain. It is part of Skye’s appeal that each of these districts provides walking markedly different from its neighbours, which in sum, and in its own way, is every bit as satisfying as the Cuillin, Red or Black.

      Walkers who combine the pleasure of physical exercise with an interest in flora and fauna, or in the history, culture and folklore of island communities, will simply be spoiled for choice; there is nowhere on the Island that does not reward one’s attention. As the poet Sorley MacLean wrote: ‘a jewel-like island, love of my people, delight of their eyes’.

History

      The history of Skye is quite simply a fascinating and time-consuming interest, and is nowhere better explained than in the immense and awe-inspiring detail of Alexander Nicolson’s History of Skye. That is the work to consult: what follows here is, by comparison, a mere crumb from the table of this absorbing topic.

      Wherever you go on Skye you will encounter structural relics, ruins of houses, forts, tombs, and so on. The Island is almost littered with chambered cairns, hillforts, duns, brochs, hut circles, souterrains and Pictish stones, all, virtually without exception, dotted along the Island’s tortured coastline. These are all that remain to tell us about the history of man on Skye before the days of the written word, and many of them date back more than 6000 years.

      Standing stone, Boreraig village (Walk 2.5)

      Imagine, if you will, the scene during the last Ice Age, when Skye lay buried beneath enormous sheets of ice that even then were shaping the landforms with which we later became familiar. As climatic conditions warmed, so the glaciers retreated – a gradual, grinding process that ended between 10,000 and 11,000 years ago. As the incredible weight of ice disappeared, so the land began to rise, and improve as tundral conditions gave way to woodland and mixed vegetation. These conditions suited early stone age (Mesolithic) man, who moved northwards and settled around the new coasts and among the islands. The presence of Mesolithic Man on Skye has not yet been proven; the earliest evidence is from later stone age (Neolithic) times, although carbon dating of finds on the nearby island of Rum to 8000 years ago, the earliest such evidence in Scotland, suggests the possibility that Mesolithic Man did find his way to Skye, and that the evidence of his presence is yet to be found, or has already been lost.

      Unlike Mesolithic Man, who lived by hunting and gathering, and moved on in search of food, Neolithic Man preferred a more static existence, staying for longer periods in the same place. This accounts for the far greater number of Neolithic artefacts found not only among the Inner Hebrides, but generally throughout Britain. Neolithic Man moved to Britain from Europe about 6000 years ago, and brought stocks of cattle and sheep, sowing grain and living a simple farming existence.

      About 2000 years later (c4000 years ago) the Beaker People appeared on the scene, also moving to Britain from Europe, especially from sites along the Rhine. They are so named from their practice of making ornate pottery. There are two particularly fine examples of chambered cairns dating from this period, one at Cnocan nan Gobhar (NG553173), and the other, reached from Glen Brittle, at Rubh’ an Dùnain (Walk 3.18).

      By 3000 years ago, the first hillforts started appearing on Skye, signifying a sometime state of conflict between the local inhabitants and intruders. For about 800 years, hillforts dominated the landscape, varying in size, and usually consisting of a wall around an arrangement of internal buildings. Given the ready availability of wood on Skye, it is more than likely that the wall would have had a fence on top. They were all located on high ground, giving good views, and probably served as a focal point to which people living in surrounding homesteads might have retreated in times of danger.

      Gradually, however, the size of these fortifications reduced, and they began to be replaced by duns, and later, brochs. Quite why this reduction occurred is not clear, but it is likely that as tribes became smaller, so the need for large enclosures was less. The result was the ‘dun’, a fairly simple structure, quite often little more than a wall set across a promontory, while a ‘broch’ by comparison was a highly sophisticated drystone structure. The best preserved of the brochs on Skye is Dun Beag, off the Struan road to Dunvegan at NG339386, near Bracadale.

      Cill Chriosd church, Strath Suardal (Walk 2.5)

      The need for these defensive settlements was probably generated by invasions from mainland tribes. When these became preoccupied with the Roman presence further south, the result seems to have been a much more settled period of existence on Skye, and many of the brochs were abandoned, or robbed of their stone for the hut circles and souterrains that were to follow.

      Hut circles were simply a ring of boulders with a wooden structure built on top, and formed the basic homestead for farming communities. Souterrains, however, pose more of a puzzle for archaeologists, but probably served as underground defensive structures against the malice of cattle raiders. One of the best on Skye is at Claigan (NG238539), north of Dunvegan.

      There is little left on Skye of the so-called ‘Pictish’ era except a few standing stones, some bearing Christianstyle crosses. A good example is at Clach Ard, 8km (5 miles) north-west of Portree, and bears rod symbols, and those for a mirror and a comb.

      Later on, the Christian way of life began to take a hold, reinforced by the visit