My Muse's Musings

We didn't get to spend nearly as much time on Skye as we'd have liked.   Portree is the major town on Skye. At one time it was called Kiltraglen.  In 1540 King James V sailed into the harbor with a fleet of warships demanding the island lords support. The name was changed to Portree which comes from the Gaelic Port-an- Righ which means Kings Port. Bonnie Prince Charlie stayed in what was MacNabs Inn at the time and which is now the Royal Motel. He bade Flora MacDonald, and Scotland, good-bye from there in 1746. In the early 1700 overpopulation and poverty forced the citizens of Portree onto ships bound for America. Sir James MacDonald developed the port as a fishing port and brought new industry into the town preventing a larger exodus. In 1846 the potato famine hit Portree followed by the clearance and a large part of the population once again boarded ships for America and Australia. Today it is a thriving town built around the harbor that has bee...

Eilean Donan Castle sits on a small island connected to land by a bridge. At around 600 a monastery, or actually just a small group of huts that housed the monks, occupied the island. St Donan was responsible for their being there and thus the island and the castle attained its name. Evidence of a small iron age fort still occupied the land when the current castle was constructed.        (When I took this picture, I almost cried. This is the exact angle and composition for the cover of my book, Highland Moonlight. Had I traveled to Scotland 3 years ago they could have used my picture for the cover.) In the year, 1200 Kenneth MacKensie built a massive castle that nearly enclosed the entire area of the island. It had a four story tower house with walls over 4 feet thick, a keep and a curtain wall that bordered the island. From this fortress he fought the Norse invasions that plagued the area.  Some time around 1400 parts of the castle we...