Beautiful Isle of Skye
Music: Come Home To Me, Tim Janis
A little video I made on my ipad of a trip to beautiful Skye earlier this year..
Before reaching Skye, I stopped off at Eilean Donan Castle, it appears a lot in pictures of Scotland, because it is so picturesque, and has appeared in many films and television programmes too.
Eilean Donan (Scottish Gaelic: Eilean Donnain) is a small tidal island where three lochs meet, Loch Duich, Loch Long and Loch Alsh, in the western Highlands of Scotland. The castle was restored in the early 20th Century, and a footbridge now connects the island to the mainland.
Then onto Portree the largest town on Skye... and the pictures show the colourful harbour..
The Skye Museum of Island Life at Kilmuir, was opened in 1965. The aim was to preserve a township of thatched cottages, each one depicting, as closely as possible, the conditions prevailing on the island at the close of the nineteenth century...The Weavers cottage is one of many preserved cottages..
Then onto Cill Chriosd (Christ's Church or Kilchrist) and is a ruined former parish church of Strathaird. It was constructed around the 16th century, replacing an earlier Medieval church on the same location, and was used until 1840 when the Parish church was relocated to Broadford.
I loved the old celtic cross stones, and the view of the mountains behind.. I think I scared the odd sheep as I wandered around..
The next place I photographed was Bla Bheinn..The name Blà Bheinn is thought to mean blue mountain, from a combination of Norse and Gaelic.
Moving onto the Storr...(Scottish Gaelic: An Stòr) and is a rocky hill on the Trotternish peninsula ..The area in front of the cliffs of the Storr is known as the Sanctuary. It has a number of weirdly shaped rock pinnacles, the remnants of ancient landslips.
And finally to beautiful Elgol.. (Scottish Gaelic: Ealaghol) and is a village on the shores of Loch Scavaig towards the end of the Strathaird peninsula..it is a crofting and fishing village, and I enjoyed dipping my toes into the water on a beautiful warm sunshiney day..
Isle of Skye August 2017
A selection of drone footage from my recent visit to the Isle of Skye. The footage shows the following locations:
Duntulm Castle
Museum of Island Life
Kilmuir Cemetery (Flora MacDonalds Monument)
The Quiraing
Camus Mor
The Fairy Glen
Sligachan
UK & South Ireland Trip, 15 - 28 August 2015
This pretty much sums up my trip to London, Scotland and Ireland from 15 - 28 August 2015. Missing the clear blue skies, green grass, cool weather and the carefree life!
This was the first time...
-Visiting the United Kingdom (London, Scotland, North Ireland) and South Ireland.
-Doing a self-drive road trip.
-Receiving a speeding fine overseas.
-Encountering a closed hotel even though we had a booking.
-Getting in a car accident.
And grateful that although so many things had happened in this trip, my friends and I are back home safely.
-----
15 Aug, London: The Hurlingham Club, Old Prudential Building, The British Museum, Big Ben, London Eye
16 Aug, London: TrailFinders Sports Club, Portobello Market
17 Aug, London: The Household Cavalry Museum, Changing Of The Guards at Buckingham Palace, Ripley's Believe It or Not!, Natural History Museum
18 Aug, London: Stonehenge, Gala Dinner at Old Billingsgate Hall
19 Aug, Scotland: Loch Ness, Eliean Donan Castle, Neist Point Lighthouse on the Isle of Sky
20 Aug, Scotland: Isle of Skye, Coral Beach, Skye Museum of Island life, Kilmuir Cemetery, Duntulm Castle, Kilt Rock, Old Man Of Storr, Portree
21 Aug, Scotland: Fort William, Glencoe, Buachaille Etive Mòr, River Coe & An Torr, Glasgow City
22 Aug, Scotland: Edinburgh Festival Fringe
23 Aug, Ireland: Adare Town, Unknown Stone Fort, Kate Kearney's Cottage, Gap Of Dunloe, Muckross House & Gardens, Ross Castle
24 Aug, Ireland: Ring Of Kerry, Torc Waterfall, Ladies View, Kenmare Town, Sneem Town, Staigue Fort, Skellig Chocolate Factory, Cliffs Of Moher, Galway City
25 Aug, Ireland: Dublin City, Temple Bar
26 Aug, North Ireland: Belfast, Titanic Belfast Visitor & Experience Center, Dunluce Castle, Giant's Causeway, Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge
ISLE OF SKYE
**Apologies for the unstable sound quality and colour flickers!
Specific locations we stopped at during our Isle of Skye trip include: Dunkeld, Inverness, Old Man of Storr, Glen Coe, Eilean Donan, Culloden, Loch Ness, Fort William, Portree, Fairy Glen, Luss, Urquhart Castle, The Three Sisters, An Cailc, Great Glen, Kiltrock, Sligachan and Kilmuir Graveyard.
Instagram: @sabmagnusson
Flora and the Prince: Skye (the love story)
Flora and the Prince is an opera which I was invited to write for a music festival at Carnegie Hall in New York. This is part of a performance of an extended, secular oratorio version from a concert given in St. Paul's Cathedral, Dundee, by Dundee University Chamber Choir and ensemble.
The piece closely follows the documented historical events and tells the story of Flora MacDonald's unrequited love for Bonnie Prince Charlie as she guides him to the French ship which rescued him after his 1745 Jacobite rebellion finally failed at the calamitous battle of Culloden, putting paid to his efforts to claim the throne of the United Kingdom. This adventure is made famous by the Skye Boat Song (Speed, bonny boat, like a bird on the wing...), which focusses on their daring escape from the island of Benbecula to the Isle of Skye by night across the dark, dangerous waters of the Minch in a small boat.
This part of Flora and the Prince tells the story of events on Skye immediately after the dangerous sea-crossing. This is when Flora fell in love with the Prince and remained so for the rest of her life. Ever after this part of their adventure Flora kept the sheet the Prince had slept in, and her final wish was that she should be buried in it. She was.
Flora is sung by American soprano Laura Pedersen, who created the role in the premiere in New York, and the Prince is sung by Welsh baritone Phil Gault. I'm the conductor.
Exploring Skye including Kilt Rock, Kilvaxter Souterrain and Village Life Museum and Village
Today is our last day exploring the Isle of Skye and it continues to deliver breathtaking scenery and unusual surprises. We stop along A855 to see Kilt Rock and a beautiful waterfall that plummets over 100 feet into the ocean, the Island Life village with thatched roofs and then the Kilvaxter Souterrain that dates from the Iron Age!
The Official SPiS Site (Strange Places in Scotland)
The official SPiS Behind the Scenes site
Archie Anderson “Lament of Flora McDonald” (1912 cylinder) James Hogg Scotland Bonnie Prince Charles
Archie Anderson sings the James Hogg song “The Lament of Flora McDonald” on Edison Wax Amberol 12485, released in September 1912.
Far over yon hills of the heather sae green
An' doun by the corrie that sinks to the sea,
The bonnie young Flora sat sighin' her lane,
The dew on her plaid an' the tears in her e'e.
She look'd at a boat wi' the breezes that swung,
Away on the wave like a bird on the main
An' aye as it lessen'd she sigh'd an' she sung,
Fareweel to the lad I shall ne'er see again,
Fareweel to my hero the gallant an' young,
Fareweel to the lad I shall ne'er see again.
The moorcock that crows on the brows o' Ben Connal
He kens o' his bed in a sweet mossy hame;
The eagle that soars o'er the cliffs o' Clan Ronald
Unaw'd and unhunted his eyrie can claim;
The solan can sleep on the shelves of the shore,
The cormorant roost on his rock of the sea;
But ah! there is one whose hard fate I deplore,
Nor house, ha', nor hame in this country has he;
The conflict is past and our name is no more,
There's nought left but sorrow for Scotland and me.
The song implies there was a romance between Bonnie Prince Charlie and Flora McDonald (1722-1790) of Benbecula (South Uist) in 1746.
In reality, they were not involved in a romantic way. Flora MacDonald helped the prince escape enemies in late June 1746.
Dressed as Flora's maidservant, Charles fled from North Uist to Skye in the Hebrides. Charles and Flora were together for ten days. Flora MacDonald was soon arrested, transported by ship to London, and imprisoned.
Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) lived from 1720 to 1788. His father, James Francis Edward, was viewed by Louis XIV and the Pope as King James VIII of Scotland. This father--the father of Bonnie Prince Charlie--was known as the Old Pretender.
In July 1745, Charles Edward Stuart (again, he was known as the Young Pretender or Bonnie Prince Charlie) landed in the outer Hebrides. The French and the English were at war, and with the English army on the continent, the Young Pretender thought luck would be on his side if he tried to take the crown.
The prince gained enough support to leave his Highland base, sweep through Scotland, beat the government army at Prestonpans, occupy Edinburgh, and head south through England, where he hoped to pick up Jacobite support on the way.
On April 16, 1746, the Battle of Culloden was fought. The hungry and badly supplied Jacobite army fought the government army under the King’s second son, the Duke of Cumberland. Within the first hour of battle, Prince Charles Edward knew his side was failing. He was led from the field.
Charles hid in many places in the Outer Isles. In June of 1746 Flora was at her brother's farm in charge of the cattle at their summer upland grazing. She was 24 years old.
Flora was not a Jacobite and at first refused to guide him when told the idea by her cousin, Neil McEachern McDonald, who was with the royal fugitive and Flora's foster-father.
Nevertheless, she helped, probably disliking the idea of the young Stuart heir being sent to death. Moreover, the Prince's departure would quickly end the disquiet brought to the small island by his presence.
Her objection to spending so much time alone with the Prince led to the promise that Neil McDonald would accompany them.
Flora already had a passport to go to Skye and she was known to be returning within days. The authorities would certainly become suspicious if she asked for a passport for a manservant to accompany her, so Charles had to be disguised as a female attendant.
Charles would become Betty Burke and with Flora's help stayed out of British hands. They had luck. The first patrol to stop them was headed by Flora's stepfather.
At a later period she told the Duke of Cumberland (he was son of George II and commander-in-chief in Scotland) that she acted from charity and would have helped anyone who had been defeated and in distress.
The commander of the militia in the island was also a Macdonald and probably a sympathizer of the Jacobite cause. He gave her a pass to the mainland for herself, a manservant, an Irish spinning maid named Betty Burke, and a boat's crew of six men.
Flora and Lady Clanranald prepared the clothes for Betty Burke and, on June 20, 1746, they met the Prince.
In 1774, nearly two decades after her arrest and release, she emigrated with her husband and her two sons to North Carolina.
She returned to her native Skye in 1779.
She died at Kingsburgh on the Isle of Skye, in 1790, at the age of 68. She is buried at Kilmuir on Skye.
Flora MacDonald's birthplace
This ruined cottage was the birthplace of Flora MacDonald, the girl who rescued Bonnie Prince Charlie and gave birth to the Skye Boat Song. Here on South Uist they preserve all sorts of facts about her which you don't learn elsewhere - did you know that she and her husband fought in the American War of Independence, on the British side? Watch the film to discover how many gallons of whiskey were drunk at her funeral!
Kenneth McKellar “Lament of Flora McDonald” James Hogg song Scotland Bonnie Prince Charles
Kenneth McKellar sings The Lament of Flora McDonald--the famous James Hogg song.
Far over yon hills of the heather sae green
An' doun by the corrie that sinks to the sea,
The bonnie young Flora sat sighin' her lane,
The dew on her plaid an' the tears in her e'e.
She look'd at a boat wi' the breezes that swung,
Away on the wave like a bird on the main
An' aye as it lessen'd she sigh'd an' she sung,
Fareweel to the lad I shall ne'er see again,
Fareweel to my hero the gallant an' young,
Fareweel to the lad I shall ne'er see again.
The moorcock that crows on the brows o' Ben Connal
He kens o' his bed in a sweet mossy hame;
The eagle that soars o'er the cliffs o' Clan Ronald
Unaw'd and unhunted his eyrie can claim;
The solan can sleep on the shelves of the shore,
The cormorant roost on his rock of the sea;
But ah! there is one whose hard fate I deplore,
Nor house, ha', nor hame in this country has he;
The conflict is past and our name is no more,
There's nought left but sorrow for Scotland and me.
The song implies there was a romance between Bonnie Prince Charlie and Flora McDonald (1722-1790) of Benbecula (South Uist) in 1746.
In reality, they were not involved in a romantic way. Flora MacDonald helped the prince escape enemies in late June 1746.
Dressed as Flora's maidservant, Charles fled from North Uist to Skye in the Hebrides. Charles and Flora were together for ten days. Flora MacDonald was soon arrested, transported by ship to London, and imprisoned.
Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) lived from 1720 to 1788. His father, James Francis Edward, was viewed by Louis XIV and the Pope as King James VIII of Scotland. This father--the father of Bonnie Prince Charlie--was known as the Old Pretender.
In July 1745, Charles Edward Stuart (again, he was known as the Young Pretender or Bonnie Prince Charlie) landed in the outer Hebrides. The French and the English were at war, and with the English army on the continent, the Young Pretender thought luck would be on his side if he tried to take the crown.
The prince gained enough support to leave his Highland base, sweep through Scotland, beat the government army at Prestonpans, occupy Edinburgh, and head south through England, where he hoped to pick up Jacobite support on the way.
On April 16, 1746, the Battle of Culloden was fought. The hungry and badly supplied Jacobite army fought the government army under the King’s second son, the Duke of Cumberland. Within the first hour of battle, Prince Charles Edward knew his side was failing. He was led from the field.
Charles hid in many places in the Outer Isles. In June of 1746 Flora was at her brother's farm in charge of the cattle at their summer upland grazing. She was 24 years old.
Flora was not a Jacobite and at first refused to guide him when told the idea by her cousin, Neil McEachern McDonald, who was with the royal fugitive and Flora's foster-father.
Nevertheless, she helped, probably disliking the idea of the young Stuart heir being sent to death. Moreover, the Prince's departure would quickly end the disquiet brought to the small island by his presence.
Her objection to spending so much time alone with the Prince led to the promise that Neil McDonald would accompany them.
Flora already had a passport to go to Skye and she was known to be returning within days. The authorities would certainly become suspicious if she asked for a passport for a manservant to accompany her, so Charles had to be disguised as a female attendant.
Charles would become Betty Burke and with Flora's help stayed out of British hands. They had luck. The first patrol to stop them was headed by Flora's stepfather.
At a later period she told the Duke of Cumberland (he was son of George II and commander-in-chief in Scotland) that she acted from charity and would have helped anyone who had been defeated and in distress.
The commander of the militia in the island was also a Macdonald and probably a sympathizer of the Jacobite cause. He gave her a pass to the mainland for herself, a manservant, an Irish spinning maid named Betty Burke, and a boat's crew of six men.
Flora and Lady Clanranald prepared the clothes for Betty Burke and, on June 20, 1746, they met the Prince.
In 1774, nearly two decades after her arrest and release, she emigrated with her husband and her two sons to North Carolina.
She returned to her native Skye in 1779.
She died at Kingsburgh on the Isle of Skye, in 1790, at the age of 68. She is buried at Kilmuir on Skye.
Flora MacDonald
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Flora MacDonald
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Artist-Info: Allan Ramsay (1713–1784) Description British painter Date of birth/death 13 October 1713 10 August 1784 Location of birth/death Edinburgh Dover Work location London, Rome, Edinburgh Authority control VIAF: 49266202 LCCN: n85011073 GND: 118749005 SELIBR: 293904 BnF: cb136026493 ULAN: 500019302 ISNI: 0000 0000 9576 2163 WorldCat
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Our Island Story by H. E. Marshall - Chapter 92: The Story of Flora MacDonald
LibriVox recording of Our Island Story, by H. E. Marshall. Read by Kara Shallenberg.
Creative Commons license: Public Domain
Image:
Creative Commons license: Public Domain