Peat, crofting and Bonnie Prince Charles

Today was a fabulous day, one of the most visually stunning days of our travels. We spent it circumnavigating the Trotternish Peninsula on the Ilse of Skye and while the scenery was picturesque the light (for some reason) had a special quality that made every view stunning.

Along our route we saw a few instances of peat farming and learned that some people in the Scottish Highlands still use this traditional form of energy for heating. It is after all free.

We also learned a bit more about the practice of crofting and crofters. Traditional Scottish tenant farmers. In the third last photo you can see the striped pattern on the land. These were once crofts, that is land farmed by a crofter. In 1976 the Scottish Government ended crofting (de-crofting) and allowed crofters to buy their croft land for a relatively modest price. Many croft families immediately subdivided their land, keeping a small block on the lower slopes for their own house and selling the upper section. That is why many of the blocks in the third last photo have houses at both the top and bottom of the strip of land. Part of that deal seems to have been an obligation on the buyer to continue farming the land. It seems that in some parts of Scotland that obligation is now being enforced with land forfeiture as the penalty for non-compliance.

And finally of course one could not visit Skye without hearing about Bonnie Prince Charlie, as in :

	    Speed bonnie boat like a bird on the wing
	    Onward, the sailers cry
	    Carry the lad that's born to be King
	    Over the sea to Skye
    

Bonnie Prince Charlie was from the deposed line of English Stuart Kings, had support among the Scots as he was descendant from Mary Queen of Scots and returned to Scotland in 1745 in an effort to regain the throne. After initial success against the English, Bonnie Prince Charlie and his supporters were defeated at the battle of Culloden in 1746.

After the defeat Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped to the Ilse of Skye where he was looked after by Flora Macdonald who later smuggled BPC to France disguised as her maid.