Portree (; , ) is the capital and largest town of the

Isle of Skye The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye, is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated by the Cuillin, the rocky slopes of which provide some of ...

in the

Inner Hebrides The Inner Hebrides ( ; ) is an archipelago off the west coast of mainland Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, which experience a mild oceanic climate. The Inner Hebrides compri ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. Murray, W.H. (1966) ''The Hebrides''. London. Heinemann. Pages 154-155. It is a

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...

and lies within the

Highland council area Highland (, ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in both Scotland and the United Kingdom. It was the 7th most populous council area in Scotland at the United Kingdo ...

, around from its administrative centre of

Inverness Inverness (; ; from the , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness") is a city in the Scottish Highlands, having been granted city status in 2000. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highland ...

. Portree has a harbour, fringed by cliffs, with a pier designed by

Thomas Telford Thomas Telford (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotland, as well ...

. Attractions in the town include the former Aros Centre, now the Isle of Skye Candle Co. Visitor Centre, which celebrates the island's

Gaelic Gaelic (pronounced for Irish Gaelic and for Scots Gaelic) is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". It may refer to: Languages * Gaelic languages or Goidelic languages, a linguistic group that is one of the two branches of the Insul ...

heritage. Further arts provision is made through arts organisation ATLAS Arts, a

Creative Scotland Creative Scotland ( ; ) is the development body for the arts and creative industries in Scotland. Based in Edinburgh, it is an executive non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government The Scottish Government (, ) is the execut ...

regularly-funded organisation. The town also serves as a centre for tourists exploring the island.Haswell-Smith, Hamish. (2004) ''The Scottish Islands''. Edinburgh. Canongate, pages 173-4 Around 939 people (37.72% of the population) can speak

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

. Portree is connected to the

Skye Bridge The Skye Bridge () is a road bridge over Loch Alsh, Scotland, connecting the Isle of Skye to the island of Eilean Bàn. The name is also used for the whole Skye Crossing, which further connects Eilean Bàn to the mainland across the Carrich V ...

by the A87 road, which then leads northwards to Uig. The A855 road also leads north out of the town, passing through villages such as Achachork, Staffin and passes the rocky landscape of the Storr before reaching the landslip of the Quiraing.

Etymology

The current name, ' translates as 'king's port', possibly from a visit by King

James V of Scotland James V (10 April 1512 – 14 December 1542) was List of Scottish monarchs, King of Scotland from 9 September 1513 until his death in 1542. He was crowned on 21 September 1513 at the age of seventeen months. James was the son of King James IV a ...

in 1540. However this etymology has been contested, since James did not arrive in peaceful times. The older name appears to have been ', meaning 'slope harbour'. Prior to the 16th century the settlement's name was Kiltaraglen ('the church of St. Talarican') from Gaelic '.

Prehistory and archaeology

Archaeological investigations in advance of construction of a housing development in 2006–2007, by CFA Archaeology, uncovered evidence of occupation of Portree from the

Early Bronze Age The Bronze Age () was a historical period characterised principally by the use of bronze tools and the development of complex urban societies, as well as the adoption of writing in some areas. The Bronze Age is the middle principal period of ...

to the

Medieval period In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of World history (field), global history. It began with the fall of the West ...

(the earliest radiocarbon date was 2570 BC, and the latest was AD 1400). They also found stone tools that indicated people were in the area in the Early to Mid

Neolithic The Neolithic or New Stone Age (from Ancient Greek, Greek 'new' and 'stone') is an archaeological period, the final division of the Stone Age in Mesopotamia, Asia, Europe and Africa (c. 10,000 BCE to c. 2,000 BCE). It saw the Neolithic Revo ...

, possibly as far back as the Late

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Ancient Greek language, Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic i ...

. The archaeologists discovered the remains of timber roundhouses, a circular ditch-defined enclosure, miniature souterrains, probable standing stone sockets and an assortment of pits. While not many artefacts were recovered there was an assemblage of Beaker pottery. This was the first discovery of a site dating from the Later Bronze Age on the Isle of Skye. The archaeologists also found evidence of the shooting range that was created in the 1800s with the formation of the Rifle Volunteer movement, set up in 1859 to defend the country against a potential French invasion. The first official unit in Portree was the 8th Inverness-shire Rifle Volunteer Corps, formed in July 1867.

History

In the 1700s, the town was a popular point of departure for Scots sailing to America to escape poverty. This form of use repeated during the

famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenom ...

in the 1840s. Both times, the town was saved by an influx of boats, often going between mainland Scotland and the Outer Hebrides, who used Portree's pier as a rest point. The town also began exporting fish at this time, which contributed greatly to the local economy. The Royal Hotel is the site of MacNab's Inn, the last meeting place of Flora MacDonald and

Bonnie Prince Charlie Charles Edward Louis John Sylvester Maria Casimir Stuart (31 December 1720 – 30 January 1788) was the elder son of James Francis Edward Stuart, making him the grandson of James VII and II, and the Stuart claimant to the thrones of England, ...

in 1746. The town had the last manual

telephone exchange A telephone exchange, telephone switch, or central office is a central component of a telecommunications system in the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or in large enterprises. It facilitates the establishment of communication circuits ...

in the UK, which closed in 1976.

Tourism

Portree is considered to be among the "20 most beautiful villages in the UK and Ireland" according to

Condé Nast Traveler ''Condé Nast Traveler'' is a luxury and lifestyle travel magazine published by Condé Nast. The magazine has won 25 National Magazine Awards. The Condé Nast unit of Advance Publications purchased ''Signature'', a magazine for Diners Club me ...

and is visited by many tourists each year. A report published in mid 2020 indicated that visitors added £211 million in a single year to the Isle of Skye's economy, prior to travel restrictions imposed because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. This was expected to decline substantially due to the

. "Skye is highly vulnerable to the downturn in international visitors that will continue for much of 2020 and beyond", Professor John Lennon of

Glasgow Caledonian University Glasgow Caledonian University, informally GCU, Caledonian or Caley (), is a public university in Glasgow, Scotland. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of The Queen's College, Glasgow (founded in 1875) and Glasgow Polytechnic (originally Glasg ...

told a reporter in July 2020. In 2016, over 150,000 people stopped at the VisitScotland centre in Portree, a 5% increase over 2015. Overcrowding during peak season was a problem, however, before the pandemic, since it is "the busiest place on the island". One news item recommended that some tourists might prefer accommodations in quieter areas such as Dunvegan, Kyleakin and the Broadford and Breakish area. The 2020 reports did not cover tourism in Portree specifically but a December 2018 report by well-known travel writer

Rick Steves Richard John Steves Jr. (born May 10, 1955), known professionally as Rick Steves, is an American travel writer, activist, and television personality. His travel philosophy encourages people to explore less-frequented areas of destinations and ...

had recommended the village as "Skye’s best home base" for visitors. He indicated that Portree "provided a few hotels, hostels and bed-and-breakfasts in town, while more B&Bs line the roads into and out of town". The tourism bureau added that visitors would appreciate the "banks, churches, cafes and restaurants, a cinema at the Aros Centre, a swimming pool and library, (...) petrol filling stations and supermarkets".

Media

Local news and television programmes are provided by

BBC Scotland BBC Scotland is a division of the BBC and the main public broadcaster in Scotland. Its headquarters are in Glasgow, employing approximately 1,250 staff as of 2017, to produce 15,000 hours of television and radio programming per year. BBC Scotla ...

and

STV North Grampian Television was the original name of the Channel 3 (UK), Channel 3 service for the north of Scotland founded in 1961 and which, decades later, was merged with the Central Belt channel STV. The northern region's coverage area includes th ...

(formerly Grampian Television). Television signals are received from one of the local relay transmitters (Penifiler and Skriaig). Portree is served by nation-wide stations,

BBC Radio Scotland BBC Radio Scotland is a Scottish national radio network owned and operated by BBC Scotland, a division of the BBC. It broadcasts a wide variety of programmes. It replaced the Scottish BBC Radio 4 opt-out service of the same name from 23 N ...

on 92.9 FM and BBC Radio Nan Gaidheal (for

listeners) on 104.7 FM. The local radio station Radio Skye is a community based station that broadcasts to the

Isle Of Skye The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye, is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated by the Cuillin, the rocky slopes of which provide some of ...

and

Loch Alsh Loch Alsh (, "foaming lake") is a sea inlet between the isle of Skye in the Inner Hebrides and the Northwest Highlands of Scotland. The name is also used to describe the surrounding country and the feudal holdings around the loch. The area i ...

on 106.2 FM and 102.7 FM.

Education

Portree now has 6 schools. This includes 2 primary schools (Portree Primary School and Portree Gaelic Primary School) one high school (Portree High School) one nursery (Portree Nursery) one Pre-school (Portree Pre-school) and one college (Portree College).

Sport

The town plays host to the Isle of Skye's

shinty Shinty () is a team sport played with sticks and a ball. It is played mainly in the Scottish Highlands and among Highland migrants to the major cities of Scotland. The sport was formerly more widespread in Scotland and even played in Northern ...

club,

Skye Camanachd Skye Camanachd is a shinty team from the Isle of Skye, Highland (council area), Highland, Scotland. It plays in the Premier Division and has a reserve team in North Division One, as well as a Ladies team in the WCA National Division One and a ...

. They play at Pairc nan Laoch above the town on the road to Struan. Portree is home to two football clubs that play in the Skye and Lochalsh amateur football league called Portree and Portree Juniors. Portree is now home to a new youth football club, Skye Young Boys.

Climate

Like most of the

British Isles The British Isles are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner Hebrides, Inner and Outer Hebr ...

, Portree has an

oceanic climate An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

: ''Cfb''). The nearest weather station to Portree is located at Prabost, approximately north-west of Portree.

Portree shale

Portree shale is a geologic association in the vicinity of Portree, the existence of which is linked with potential petroleum occurrences of commercial importance.C.Michael Hogan, (2011
''Sea of the Hebrides''
Eds. P. Saundry & C.J.Cleveland. Encyclopedia of Earth. National Council for Science and the Environment. Washington DC.

References

{{Authority control Towns in Highland (council area) Populated places in the Isle of Skye Fishing communities in Scotland Geological type localities Parishes in Skye Parishes in Inverness-shire Populated coastal places in Scotland