Staffin
| |
---|---|
Location within the Isle of Skye | |
OS grid reference | NG483684 |
Council area | |
Country | Scotland |
Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
Post town | Portree |
Postcode district | IV51 9 |
Police | Scotland |
Fire | Scottish |
Ambulance | Scottish |
Staffin (Scottish Gaelic : Stafain) is a district with the Gaelic name An Taobh Sear, which translates as "the East Side", on the northeast coast of the Trotternish peninsula of the island of Skye. It is located on the A855 road about 17 miles (27 kilometres) north of Portree and is overlooked by the Trotternish Ridge with the famous rock formations of The Storr and the Quiraing. The district comprises 23 townships made up of, from south to north, Rigg, Tote, Lealt, Lonfearn, Grealin, Breackry, Cul-nan-cnoc, Bhaltos, Raiseburgh, Ellishadder, Garafad, Clachan, Garros, Marishader, Maligar, Stenscholl, Brogaig, Sartle, Glasphein, Digg, Dunans, Flodigarry and Greap. The Kilmartin River runs northwards through the village. From where it reaches the sea a rocky shore leads east to a slipway at An Corran. Here a local resident found a slab bearing a dinosaur track, probably made by a small ornithopod. Experts subsequently found more dinosaur prints of up to 50 cm, the largest found in Scotland, made by a creature similar to Megalosaurus . At about 160 million years old they are the youngest dinosaur remains to be found in Scotland. [1] [2]
A Mesolithic hunter-gatherer site dating to the 7th millennium BC at An Corran is one of the oldest archaeological sites in Scotland. [3] Its occupation is probably linked to that of the rock shelter at Sand, Applecross on the coast of Wester Ross. [4]
In the modern era this part of Skye retains a strong Gaelic identity with 61 per cent of the local population recorded as speaking the language in 2001. [5] In September 2010, Comunn na Gàidhlig named Staffin as their "Gaelic Community of the Year", in the first year this competition has run. [6] Also in September 2010, Highland Council announced the launch of a consultation into a plan to convert the local primary into a Gaelic medium school. This would be the second such conversion in Scotland, after Bun-sgoil Shlèite. Only 5 out of the school's thirty pupils have English as their only language, with the remainder being bilingual English and Gaelic speakers. [7]
In 2011 it was reported that Staffin Island may be the last in Scotland where the old tradition of having cattle swim between grazings is still carried out. Crofter Iain MacDonald, who used to swim with the animals, now uses a boat to encourage them to swim from Staffin Island to Skye in early spring and back again in October. [8]
The Hebrides are an archipelago off the west coast of the Scottish mainland. The islands fall into two main groups, based on their proximity to the mainland: the Inner and Outer Hebrides.
The Inner Hebrides is an archipelago off the west coast of mainland Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, which experience a mild oceanic climate. The Inner Hebrides comprise 35 inhabited islands as well as 44 uninhabited islands with an area greater than 30 hectares. Skye, Mull, and Islay are the three largest, and also have the highest populations. The main commercial activities are tourism, crofting, fishing and whisky distilling. In modern times the Inner Hebrides have formed part of two separate local government jurisdictions, one to the north and the other to the south. Together, the islands have an area of about 4,130 km2 (1,594 sq mi), and had a population of 18,948 in 2011. The population density is therefore about 4.6 inhabitants per square kilometre.
Scalpay is an inhabited island in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland which has a population of 4.
Sleat is a peninsula and civil parish on the island of Skye in the Highland council area of Scotland, known as "the garden of Skye". It is the home of the clan MacDonald of Sleat. The name comes from the Scottish Gaelic Slèite, which in turn comes from Old Norse sléttr, which well describes Sleat when considered in the surrounding context of the mainland, Skye and Rùm mountains that dominate the horizon all about Sleat.
Trotternish is the northernmost peninsula of the Isle of Skye in Scotland, beginning at Portree and terminating at Rubha Hunish. The Trotternish escarpment runs almost the full length of the peninsula, some 30 kilometres, and contains such landmarks as the Old Man of Storr and the Quiraing. The summit of The Storr, overlooking the Old Man, is the highest point of the peninsula. The north-eastern part of the peninsula around Quiraing is designated as a National Scenic Area and the entire escarpment is a Special Area of Conservation.
Sand on the Applecross Peninsula in Wester Ross, Scotland, is an archaeological site.
Crofting is a form of land tenure and small-scale food production peculiar to the Scottish Highlands, the islands of Scotland, and formerly on the Isle of Man. Within the 19th-century townships, individual crofts were established on the better land, and a large area of poorer-quality hill ground was shared by all the crofters of the township for grazing of their livestock. In the 21st century, crofting is found predominantly in the rural Western and Northern Isles and in the coastal fringes of the western and northern Scottish mainland.
The Crofters Holdings (Scotland) Act 1886 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that created legal definitions of crofting parish and crofter, granted security of land tenure to crofters and produced the first Crofters Commission, a land court which ruled on disputes between landlords and crofters. The same court ruled on whether parishes were or were not crofting parishes. In many respects the Act was modelled on the Irish Land Acts of 1870 and 1881. By granting the crofters security of tenure, the Act put an end to the Highland Clearances.
Sabhal Mòr Ostaig is a public higher education college situated in the Sleat peninsula in the south of the Isle of Skye, Scotland with an associate campus at Bowmore on the island of Islay. Sabhal Mòr is an independent Academic Partner in the federal University of the Highlands and Islands. Its sole medium of instruction on degree courses is Scottish Gaelic.
Tarskavaig is a crofting village on the west coast of Sleat on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. It sits in a glen which meets Tarskavaig Bay and lies opposite the Isles of Eigg, Rum and Canna. It is often said that Tarskavaig has the best view of the Cuillin in Skye.
An Comunn Gàidhealach, commonly known as An Comunn, is a Scottish organisation that supports and promotes the Scottish Gaelic language and Scottish Gaelic culture and history at local, national and international levels. The society is closely associated with the Royal National Mòd. The symbol used for An Comunn Gàidhealach is the Irish Sunburst flag at the top also a symbol associated in Irish mythology and the Celtic harp on the bottom right.
Comunn na Gàidhlig, abbreviated to "CnaG", is an organisation which seeks to promote Scottish Gaelic language and culture.
There are many small islands in Scotland called Flodday or similar and this list provides a guide to their location. The derivation of the name is from the Old Norse floti meaning "raft" or "float". The similar island names Fladda and Flotta are also from the Norse flatr and mean "flat island". Usage is not always consistent in external sources.
Portnalong is a small village on north west of the Isle of Skye on the shore of Loch Harport. Portnalong is Gaelic for "harbour of the ships". It was founded by crofters from Lewis and Harris in 1921.
The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye, is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated by the Cuillin, the rocky slopes of which provide some of the most dramatic mountain scenery in the country. Although Sgitheanach has been suggested to describe a winged shape, no definitive agreement exists as to the name's origins.
Glendale is a community-owned estate on the north-western coastline of the Duirinish peninsula on the island of Skye and is in the Scottish council area of Highland. The estate encompasses the small crofting townships of Skinidin, Colbost, Fasach, Glasphein, Holmisdale, Lephin, Hamaraverin, Borrodale, Milovaig, Waterstein, Feriniquarrie, Totaig, Hamara, and others.
Ellishadder is a crofting township, situated close to the north shore of the freshwater Loch Mealt, on the Trotternish peninsula of the island of Skye, and is in the Scottish council area of Highland. Ellishadder is one of 23 townships making up the district area of Staffin.
Staffin Island is an uninhabited islet off the east coast of the Trotternish peninsula of Skye in Scotland.
Roderick John MacLeod, Lord Minginish, also known as Roddy John, is a Scottish advocate. From 2014 until his retirement in December 2022, he was Chairman of the Scottish Land Court and President of the Lands Tribunal for Scotland. He was the first Gaelic-speaking chair of the court.
Mary MacPherson (née MacDonald), known as Màiri Mhòr nan Òran or simply Màiri Mhòr, was a Scottish Gaelic poet from the Isle of Skye, whose contribution to Scottish Gaelic literature is focused heavily upon the Highland Clearances and the Crofters War; the Highland Land League's campaigns of rent strikes and other forms of direct action. Although she could read her own work when it was written down, she could not write it down herself. She retained her songs and poems in her memory and eventually dictated them to others, who wrote them down for publication. She often referred to herself as Màiri Nighean Iain Bhàin, the name by which she would have been known in the Skye of her childhood.