Sumardale
November 12, 2007 | Leave a Comment |
Our house is built around a timber frame which was supplied by SkyeHomes, a local company specialized in designing typical Highland homes. Besides a portfolio of off-the-shelve designs, they offer a bespoke design service. This means that they design your house to your specific requirements and charge a nominal fee for that. In exchange they retain the copyright of the design so they can reuse the design for other customers as well. They also added our design to their portfolio and called it the “Sumardale”.
Having a tradition of naming their designs after local places, we were curious about Sumardale. We know for sure that Sumardale is a river on Skye, close to the Gesto Bay area. According to people from SkyeHomes it also used to be a crofting community which was depopulated during the Highland clearances. We’re not really sure why SkyeHomes choose this name. Maybe they just thought it sounded right.
Nowadays, hints to a once existing crofter community - remnants of houses - are not clearly visible like they are for example in the Osdale area close to the MacLeod’s Tables (although there are overgrown boulders visible that could point to remnants of old houses, but that’s not our area of expertise, so any opinion here would be presumptuous). The river Sumardale is there and so is a single farm house in the distance…
Few in number
November 2, 2007 | Leave a Comment |
After receiving an email from my friend Jim regarding the meaning of names of Colbost and Totaig, I got interested in the meaning of names of the villages around our house. See my earlier posts here and here.
Today I was browsing around a bit and came across a couple of references to the meaning of the name “Dunvegan”. An interesting explanation I found at the website of Undiscovered Scotland:
The origin of the name Dunvegan is the source of healthy debate. The first element Dun is a common feature in many names that come from Scottish Gaelic and means fort or castle. The source of the second half of the name, vegan, is less clear. Some have suggested it comes from the Gaelic beagain meaning “few in number” or “small in size”. Others believe it comes from the name of a Norse chieftan, Began. On the whole, “Began’s fort” seems the simplest and therefore the most likely explanation. The name was written down as “Dunbegane” in 1498; as “Dunveggane” in 1517; and as “Dunnevegane” in 1553.
Unfortunately, I could not find any further references to a Norse chief named “Began”. However, I found an interesting site called “A Vision of Britain through time“, which gives a vision of Britain Between 1800’s and 2000: maps, stats, trends etc..
The harsh life
October 23, 2007 | Leave a Comment |
Every now and then we visit Dunvegan Castle, mostly to accompany family or friends who visit us. It’s an interesting place to visit with loads of history and - due to famous movies like “Highlander” and spin-off TV-series - the name “MacLeod” appeals to the fantasy of people.
No matter how often we visit the castle, one thing always impresses me enormously. It’s the exposition of pictures of life on St. Kilda in the lower parts of the castle, towards the shop and the exit. The archipelago of St Kilda, the remotest part of the British Isles, lies 41 miles (66 kilometres) west of Benbecula in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides. The impressive story of St. Kilda and its inhabitants can be read on the website of St. Kilda. Definitely worth the time to read this!
After reading the island’s history you can only imagine how totally harsh life must have been there. Those were circumstances we cannot imagine nowadays. We get upset when we’re out of electricity for one day, or when our car breaks down during bad weather. The pictures at Dunvegan Castle show people with a glance on their face that has harshness written all over it. After some browsing around, I found a particularly striking image on the website of the Glasgow Museums, which shows St. Kilda women and girls in Main Street, St. Kilda. Notice the women to the rigth: they do not appear to wear shoes…
Currently St. Kilda is owned by The National Trust for Scotland and is maintained as a World Heritage Site. It’s certainly on our “have to see list”…
Clan against Clan
September 25, 2007 | Leave a Comment |
In the days of old, the clans of Scotland used to fight harsh battles amongst them. You can find tales of clan clashes all over the internet. A story which impressed me quite a bit was the one about Trumpan Church, a church in the hamlet of Trumpan here on Skye on the Waternish peninsula.
One day in May in the year 1578 galleys of the clan MacDonald of Uist came to Trumpan and massacred the congregation of Trumpan Church - people of the clan MacLeod - by setting fire to the church. It is said that one women survived and managed to warn the MacLeod’s in Dunvegan. The revenge of the MacLeod’s was swift and eventually all of the MacDonalds were killed as they could not launch their boats due to low tide. The battle was named the ‘Battle of the Spoiling of the Dyke’ (’Blar Milleadh Garaidh’ in Gealic) so called because, when all was over, the bodies of the MacDonald clansmen were buried by the toppling of a great dyke or wall of turf onto their bodies.
It’s hard to imagine… a peaceful congregation gathered together in a church and all being slaughtered. Even harder to imagine when you’re standing there - in modern times - and everything is quiet and peaceful…
Dunvegan Castle
August 13, 2007 | Leave a Comment |
On the other side of the loch there’s Duvegan, the home of the castle of the clan MacLeod. The castle is called “Dunvegan Castle” and it’s still privately owned by the clan chief. Today, being another rainy day, we decided to visit the castle. As we have “Friends of Dunvegan” membership cards, we can enter for free.
The castle has some nice objects on display, amongst which is the Fairy Flag. A flag shrouded in mystery and supposedly giving the clan MacLeod protective powers. Also there’s the ancient drinking horn with a capacity of about a liter. Every new clan chief has to empty this horn filled with wine in one go!
Unfortunately it’s not allowed to take pictures inside the castle, so we can’t show any here but if you check out the website of the castle you get a fair impression of it.
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Hair (1968, Original Broadway recording). Some naughty lyrics for that time!!
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