William Mackenzie - Old Skye tales : traditions, reflections and memories : with a selection from Skye, Iochdar-Trotternish and district

This edition published in 2002

by

Birlinn Limited

West Newington House

10 Newington House

Edinburgh EH9 1QS

Reprinted 2008, 2012, 2016

First edition

and

Old Skye Tales 1934

Second edition

Maclean Press, Skye, 1995

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical or photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the express written permission of the publisher.

ISBN13: 978 1 84158 201 6

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Typeset by eidetic, Edinburgh

Printed and bound by

CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CRO 4YY

William Mackenzie was born in 1851 in Melness in Sutherlandshire, the son of Peter Mackenzie, who was born in Caithness, and Ann Mackay.

He came to Skye at an early age and attended school in Kensaleyre, where his father was schoolmaster. He also trained to be a schoolteacher and took up his first teaching appointment in Uig in 1870. Shortly after that, he married Janet Lamont from Keistal, with issue of three daughters and one son. In about 1879 he was appointed headmaster of Valtos School in Staffin.

The crofter agitation for better conditions of rent and tenure began about 1880 and Mr Mackenzie was active on behalf of the crofters at the sitting of the Napier Commission in 1884.

He retired from teaching in 1915 and was succeeded in Valtos by his eldest daughter, Abby, but continued to visit the school to teach the older boys navigation and to deputise for his daughter when she was necessarily absent from her duties.

He was a tall man of spare build, and, even in old age, maintained an erect bearing. He enjoyed working with wood until the end of his life and had an extensive knowledge of the types and qualities of various timbers. Like his father before him, he was also a keen angler.

In his retirement he began to write his reminiscences, which were published at intervals in the Oban Times newspaper from 1929. In 1930 these articles were brought together in book form as Skye: Iochdar Trotternish and District. Further articles were combined in the book Old Skye Tales in 1934.

Mackenzie died in 1935, having been pre-deceased by his wife and all his family, with the exception of his eldest daughter. He is buried in an unmarked grave in the new cemetery at Skeabost.

To my fellow Skyemen, at home and abroad, I dedicate these few pages, and especially to my friends of Trotternish, among whom I spent my happy irresponsible boyhood, and whose sympathy in the sorrows of later years I valued and treasured. Many of the youthful companions of those far-away times are exiles in distant lands, and many, alas, have passed the bourne whence there is no return. To those exiled from the old homes, these pages may, perchance, enable them in fancy to tread again the hills and glens they trod in vigorous youth, mun do chuir iad cul ri Eilean a Cheo (before they turned their backs on the Isle of the Mist), perchance awaken within them some tender feeling for the land they and I love a love that will cease not till the night clouds hover, and the darkening shadows deepen. Perchance they may be a magnet attracting irresistibly the exile across seas and lands to visit in person the surroundings of the old home, renew the old friendships, and feast upon the old familiar landscapes, recalling the weird tales attributed to haunted mountain, glen, and corrie, visiting the fairy knolls, and dark lochs harbouring their monsters, treading a land storied with the ghostly past.

Begun in days of enforced idleness, memory recalled the old, and pictured afresh the new. Should these pages afford a meed of pleasure to those for whom they were written, and to others of the race, the writer will be amply rewarded.

An caill mi cuimhn air comunn blath,

Na h-ogridh chrdeil ghrinn,

Bhiodh leam ag cluich air feadh nam blr,

Will I lose the memory of warm comradeship,

Of the comely friendly youths

Who were with me playing among the fields,

And dallying about the knolls?

Responding to requests from many friends, far and near, for further tales of the romance, the glamour, the old beliefs, and the haunting wraiths of Eilean a Cheo, I have penned the following pages, which I again dedicate to my fellow Skyemen, and Gaels in general. No-one is more sensible of its defects than the writer. For these defects, incidental to the authors eighty-fourth year, I crave the kindly indulgence of my readers. I take this opportunity of expressing my gratitude for the widespread support and appreciation vouchsafed to Skye: Iochdar Trotternish and District. I trust a similar measure of support awaits this effort on behalf of our island homes. That support came from our great cities, equally with our rural homelands, and from every corner of our far-flung Empire, where Gaels carved out homes for the virile race from which they are sprung. In the silent hours of solitude, in the unconscious slumbers of the night, we may imagine their souls being wafted again to the hills and dales, to the glens and clachans which they or their forbears left with hearts bursting with dull sorrow, as they took a long, last farewell look on the hamlets of their youth. And we may imagine an experience, a mystical akinness to these silent shadowy beings, as they hover over the graveyard in the hollow, where sleep for centuries the loved ones gone before, whom they, in the fullness of their simple faith, believe will meet them on the further shore, where lifes troubles cease, and parting is no more.

Note: For some family history supplied, the author acknowledges his indebtedness to Lt-Col. Martin Martin of Ostaig in Sleat, and Captain Nicol Martin of Glendale, the respective heads of the Martins of Beallach and Marishadder; to Major Norman MacLeod, Col. K.L. MacDonald DSO; also to the Rev. D.A. MacDonald DD, Kilmuir, whose encouragement was a leading factor in my Memories taking this form.

Brae Trotternish lies between Portree and Sligachan lochs. Iochdar or Lower Trotternish is the north-east wing of Skye.

Port an Righ (Portree) is where James V landed on his mission to quell his turbulent island subjects, the capital of Skye. It is situated at the head of a land-locked bay, overlooked by an amphitheatre of houses. It is the gateway to a land teeming with tradition, romance, and weird tales of the dim and distant ages, wrapt in mystery, the attraction of people from every clime. Its memories warm the heart of the exiled native, kindling in his soul the bygone times and places of youth, inflaming in his heart the desire to again live over the old scenes, the magnet which, with tender feelings, draws him homeward again homeward again, saying, Tha mi dol dachadh. (I am going home.)