Talisker
| |
|---|---|
 Talisker Bay | |
  Talisker Location within the Isle of Skye | |
| OS grid reference | NG3230 |
| Council area | |
| Lieutenancy area | |
| Country | Scotland |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | ISLE OF SKYE |
| Postcode district | IV47 |
| Dialling code | 01478 |
| Police | Scotland |
| Fire | Scottish |
| Ambulance | Scottish |
| UK Parliament | |
| Scottish Parliament | |
Talisker (Scottish Gaelic : Talasgair) is a settlement on the Minginish peninsula in the Isle of Skye, Scotland.
Talisker was for centuries a possession of the Clan Macleod. For nearly two hundred years it was associated with a cadet branch of the chiefly line, founded by Sir Roderick Macleod, 1st of Talisker (1606-1675). Sir Roderick was the second son of Rory Mor Macleod (d.1626) and Isabel, daughter of Donald Macdonell, 8th of Glengarry. Along with his brother, Sir Norman Macleod of Bernera, he was knighted in 1661 for his services to the royalist cause. He married first a daughter of Lord Reay and secondly Mary, daughter of Lachlan Og Mackinnon of Mackinnon. [1]
John Macleod, 2nd of Talisker, who died in about 1700 was the subject of an elegy, Cumha do Fhear Thalasgair (“Lament for the Laird of Talisker”), written by the blind harpist, Ruaidhri Dall MacMhurich. [2]
Johnson and Boswell visited Talisker in 1773. Johnson’s Journey reveals him to have been impressed by his host, Talisker’s then tacksman, John Macleod, 4th of Talisker, but less so by the location itself:
...our next stage was to Talisker, the house of colonel Macleod, an officer in the Dutch service, who in this time of universal peace, has for several years been permitted to be absent from his regiment. Having been bred to physick, he is consequently a scholar, and his lady, by accompanying him in his different places of residence, is become skilful in several languages. Talisker is the place beyond all that I have seen, from which the gay and the jovial seem utterly excluded; and where the hermit might expect to grow old in meditation, without possibility of disturbance or interruption. It is situated very near the sea, but upon a coast where no vessel lands but when it is driven by a tempest on the rocks. Towards the land are lofty hills streaming with waterfalls. The garden is sheltered by firs, or pines, which grow there so prosperously, that some, which the present inhabitant planted, are very high and thick.
Boswell’s own Journal confirms Johnson’s description in its physical essentials, but concludes more charitably that “Talisker is a better place than one commonly finds in Sky”.
In 1820 Donald Macleod, 6th of Talisker, a major in the 56th Regiment, sold his interest in Talisker and emigrated to Van Diemen’s Land (financed by his father-in-law, Alexander Maclean of Coll). He travelled with 36 Highlanders of his connection and secured a grant of 2,000 acres (800 hectares). [3]
In 1825, Hugh MacAskill took over the Talisker estate and completed the clearance process begun under his predecessor. Five years later, he founded the Talisker distillery, which is in fact located some 5 miles (8 kilometres) away from Talisker at Carbost, Loch Harport. MacAskill gave up his lease of the Talisker lands in 1849. [4]
The estate includes two hills (Preshal More, which was climbed by Boswell, and Preshal Beg) of considerable geological interest. As described by B.R.Bell and I.T.Williamson: [5]
At the base of the twin summits of Preshal More and Preshal Beg, near Talisker, the laterally-restricted Preshal Beg Conglomerate Formation crops out. These heterogebeous sedimentary rocks include debris flow (?lahars), alluvial fan and fluviolacustrine facies volcanoclastic deposits accumulated with a substantial and long-lived valley drainage system which developed upon the Glen Oraid Lava Formation surface. Subsequently this topography was inundated by two thick (at least 120 m or 390 ft) intracanvon flows of compositionally distinctive tholeiitic basalt belonging to the Talisker Lava Formation. These flows mark a significant change in the chemical signature of the lava sequence and have a strong compositional affinity with the various intrusive units of the Cuillin Centre. … the Preshal More flows may represent the only remnants of an originally significant lava shield that developed above the Cuillin centre.
NatureScot has designated Talisker as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. The designation is based in part on Talisker's geological features (described above), but in part also on the presence of two rare species of Zygaenidae, the Talisker burnet moth and the transparent burnet moth. [6]
Sorley Maclean's poem Tràighean (from Dàin do Eimhir) begins with a powerful evocation of the physical features of Talisker: [7]
Nan robh sinn an Talasgar air an tràigh
far a bheil am beul mòr bàn
a' fosgladh eadar dà ghiall chruaidh,
Rubha nan Clach 's am Bioda Ruadh,
sheasainn-sa ri taobh na mara
ag ùrachadh gaoil 'nam anam
fhad ‘s a bhiodh an cuan a'lìonadh
camas Thalasgair gu sìorraidh:
sheasainn an siud air lom na tràghad
gu 'n cromadh Priseal a cheann àigich.
If we were in Talisker on the shore
where the great white mouth
opens between two hard jaws,
Rubha nan Clach and the Bioda Ruadh,
I would stand beside the sea
renewing love in my spirit
while the ocean was filling
Talisker bay forever:
I would stand there on the bareness of the shore
until Prishal bowed his stallion head.
Talisker Farm now extends to 2,475 acres (1,002 hectares). [8] The house, a handsome Georgian mansion, stands among old trees, just to the west of its 17th-century predecessor. Begun in 1717, it was much extended in the 18th and 19th centuries. [9] It has been listed since 1971 with the following description:
It has an early-18th-century core with later additions; harled, ashlar dressings. It has two storeys and attic, 6 wide bays; 2-bay piended projecting wing to front (west) elevation with porch in left re-entrant, a single-storey addition with 5 long multi-pane windows in right re-entrant and bow window to centre of wing; it has crenellated parapets, 5 piended dormers with decoratively carved wood jambs; 2 stair windows to rear; 12-pane and lying pane glazing; end and ridge stacks; slate roof. Interior: projecting front wing (circa 1780) contains dining room at ground floor and drawing room above. Original ornate plaster ceiling in drawing room. Dining room plaster ceiling dates from 1865, when the bow window was added. [10]
The shore is accessible by foot-path and is a popular destination for walkers:
Talisker Bay is a beautiful beach of stones and sand, best visited at low tide. There is both black and white sand on the beach, often mottled together to create patterns. The northern side of the bay is hemmed in by vertical cliffs and an impressive waterfall, whilst the southern side is closed off no less impressively by a great sea stack. [11]
The Cuillin is a range of mostly jagged rocky mountains on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. The main Cuillin ridge is also called the Black Cuillin to distinguish it from the Red Cuillin, which lie to the east of Glen Sligachan.
Talisker distillery is an island single malt Scotch whisky distillery based in Carbost, Scotland on the Minginish Peninsula on the Isle of Skye.
Rùm, a Scottish Gaelic name often anglicised to Rum, is one of the Small Isles of the Inner Hebrides, off the west coast of Scotland, in the district of Lochaber. For much of the 20th century the name became Rhum, a spelling invented by the former owner, Sir George Bullough, because he did not relish the idea of having the title "Laird of Rum".
Clan MacLeod is a Highland Scottish clan associated with the Isle of Skye. There are two main branches of the clan: the MacLeods of Harris and Dunvegan, known in Gaelic as Sìol Tormoid and the Clan MacLeod of Lewis Assynt and Raasay, known in Gaelic as Sìol Torcaill. Both branches claim descent from Leòd, a Norse-Gael who lived in the 13th century.
Wiay, pronounced "waya" is an uninhabited island in Loch Bracadale, off the coast of the Isle of Skye
Clan MacKinnon is a Highland Scottish clan from the islands of Mull and Skye, in the Inner Hebrides.
The Fairy Flag is an heirloom of the chiefs of Clan MacLeod. It is held in Dunvegan Castle along with other notable heirlooms, such as the Dunvegan Cup and Sir Rory Mor's Horn. The flag is made of silk, is yellow or brown in colour, and is a square of side about 18 inches. It has been examined numerous times in the last two centuries, and its condition has somewhat deteriorated. It is ripped and tattered, and is considered to be extremely fragile. The flag is covered in small red "elf dots". In the early part of the 19th century, the flag was also marked with small crosses, but these have since disappeared. The silk of the flag has been stated to have originated in the Far East, and was therefore extremely precious, which led some to believe that the flag may have been an important relic of some sort. Others have attempted to associate the flag with the Crusades or even a raven banner, which was said to have been used by various Viking leaders in the British Isles.
Maol Cheann-Dearg is a mountain in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland, between Upper Loch Torridon and Loch Carron, in the Coulags deer forest in Wester Ross. It is one of three Munros in this area and reaches a height of 933 metres (3,060 feet), it is slightly isolated from the other two being separated by a low col of 420 metres and therefore tends to be ascended separately. The mountain is typical of the region in that geologically it is made up of a mixture of sandstone and quartzite, it has a steep flanks and is rock-strewn. The dome shaped summit is littered with red sandstone boulders and lacking in vegetation making its translated name of "red-headed brow" especially appropriate. The mountain is not to be confused with Maol Chinn-dearg, another Munro on the south Glen Shiel ridge.
Loch Bracadale is a sea loch on the west coast of Skye in Scotland. It separates the Minginish Peninsula in the south from the Duirinish Peninsula in the north.
Heasta, Heast, or the anglicised form Heaste, pron. /heɪst/, is a small settlement on the island of Skye, Scotland. It is located on the west coast of the island five miles south of Broadford extending down to the north shore of Loch Eiseort, facing out to the Atlantic to the south west and is in the Scottish council area of Highland.
Glen Shiel is a glen in the Northwest Highlands of Scotland.
Fiskavaig or Fiscavaig is a picturesque crofting settlement on the north-west shore of the Minginish peninsula, Isle of Skye in the Highland Council area.
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 origin.
Sir Roderick MacLeod of MacLeod, also known as Rory MacLeod, was the 15th Chief of Clan MacLeod and one of the most famed and notorious chiefs of that clan.
The Reverend Donald Nicolson of Scorrybreac was an Episcopalian minister of Kilmuir in the Isle of Skye and head of the Clan MacNeacail, or MacNicol.
Rubha an Dùnain or Rubh' an Dùnain is an uninhabited peninsula to the south of the Cuillin hills on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. It contains unique archaeological sites which in 2017 were designated as a historic monument of national importance by Historic Environment Scotland.
The Raids on Lochaber and Shiramore took place in the Scottish Highlands between 22 May and 31 August 1746 and were part of the closing operations of the British-Hanoverian Government to bring to an end the Jacobite rising of 1745. Sometimes referred to as the "mopping up" operations, many rebels surrendered themselves and their arms, while others were captured and punished. It also included the hunt for the Jacobite leader Bonnie Prince Charles Edward Stuart otherwise known as the Young Pretender. Most of the work was done on behalf of the Government by the Independent Highland Companies of militia, the Campbell of Argyll Militia and also Loudon's Highlanders regiment.
