Skye

The Isle of Skye (An t-Eilean Sgitheanach) is a large island in the Inner Hebrides, with a population of fifteen thousand people. It is home to the second-largest Norse population in the Lordship of the Isles, and is also the area where Gaelic paganism is most common.

Skye is commonly referred to as a fortress, on account of the sheer scale of some of the defences, both natural and man-made, which include a vast array of duns, brochs, castles, and fortified sea stacks, as well as the Cuillin Hills, known for their spectacular, if daunting, natural landscapes, almost a thousand meters at their highest point, which stand between an army approaching by land from across the narrow straights at the southeastern corner and the fertile northwest of the island.

The brochs here are still inhabited, just as they are on the Isle of Lewis (click the link for an description of brochs in more detail). The most famous is Dun Beag, meaning Small Fort, which has been given something of a misnomer. This incredible construction, which stands over thirty feet tall, is only beaten in grandeur by Dun Telve and Dun Troddan which, whilst not on the island itself, guard the entrance to Skye (if you think Stonehenge is impressive, wait until you see these massive walls with spiral stairs, courtyards, rooms built into the mortarless construction, and then consider the genius of the ancient, pre-Gaelic architects who, without even wood or rope to help them, built these unique fortresses). Families still live within the broch's walls, and outside of them, but I am sure they will not mind you as long as you are courteous and observe local customs, which are the same as many other places in the Lordship of the Isles and are described here.

Skye is also the site of many of the ports of the Lordship of the Isles, and it also provides the easiest access to a from the mainland. Coll is the centre of communication and trade for the Irish Sea and north Atlantic, but Skye is the centre of military affairs. Here you can see long-fada, birlinns, and curachs in construction as well as in the water, crafted with specialist techniques by the skilled hereditary ship-builders of northwestern Skye.

Access to Skye, compared to other places, is relatively simple. It is only two hundred meters to the mainland at the nearest point, and the number of ports and surrounding islands make arranging transportation easy.