Waternish
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Waternish or Vaternish () is a peninsula approximately long on the island 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 o ...
, Scotland, situated between Loch Dunvegan and Loch Snizort in the northwest of the island, originally inhabited and owned by Clan MacNeacail/MacNicol/Nicolsons and originally consisting of small
crofting Crofting (Scottish Gaelic: ') is a form of land tenure and small-scale food production peculiar to the Scottish Highlands, the islands of Scotland, and formerly on the Isle of Man. Within the 19th-century townships, individual crofts were est ...
communities. The history of the peninsula is a long (and often bloody) one involving clan feuds, massacres, de-population during the
Highland Clearances The Highland Clearances ( , the "eviction of the Gaels") were the evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, mostly in two phases from 1750 to 1860. The first phase resulted from Scottish Agricultural R ...
, and eventual re-vitalisation. The
Clan MacLeod Clan MacLeod ( ; ) is a Scottish Highlands, Highland Scottish clan associated with the Isle of Skye. There are two main branches of the clan: the MacLeods of Harris, Outer Hebrides, Harris and Dunvegan, known in Gaelic as ' ("seed of Tormod") an ...
clan seat is at the nearby
Dunvegan Castle Dunvegan Castle (Caisteal Dhùn Bheagain) is located to the north of Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye, off the west coast of Scotland. It is the seat of the MacLeod of MacLeod, chief of the Clan MacLeod. Probably a fortified site from the earlie ...
. The current clan chief is Hugh MacLeod of MacLeod. It contains the hamlets of Stein and Lusta in Loch Bay to the south east, Halistra, Hallin and Trumpan further north and Gillen to the west, all of which are accessed from the A850 road by crossing the Fairy Bridge. The highest point is Ben Geary () and the most northerly is Waternish Point. The origin of the name Waternish is controversial.


History

About the time of the
battle of Bannockburn The Battle of Bannockburn ( or ) was fought on 23–24 June 1314, between the army of Robert the Bruce, King of Scots, and the army of King Edward II of England, during the First War of Scottish Independence. It was a decisive victory for Ro ...
in the beginning of the 14th century, the line of the MacNicol chiefs ended in an heiress, who married Torcuil MacLeod of the Lewes, a younger son of MacLeod of the Lewis, who obtained a Crown charter of the lands of
Assynt Assynt ( or ) is a sparsely populated area in the south-west of Sutherland, lying north of Ullapool on the west coast of Scotland. Assynt is known for its landscape and its remarkable mountains, which have led to the area, along with neighbour ...
, and other lands in the west of Ross, apparently those which had become vested in his MacNicol wife. The clan, on this event, came by the patriarchal rule, or law of clanship, under the leading of the nearest male heir; and the MacNicails subsequently removed to the Isle of Skye, where their chief residence was at Scoirebreac, a beautiful situation, on the margin of the loch, close to Port Rhi (
Portree Portree (; , ) is the capital and largest town of the Isle of Skye in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland.W.H. Murray, Murray, W.H. (1966) ''The Hebrides''. London. Heinemann. Pages 154-155. It is a civil parishes in Scotland, civil parish and lies ...
). In the 17th century, John Morison of Bragar stated as much when he wrote: "... Macknaicle whose onlie daughter Torquill the first of that name (and sone to Claudius the sone of Olipheous, who likewise is said to be the King of Noruway his sone,) did violentlie espouse, and cutt off Immediatlie the whole race of Macknaicle and possessed himself with the whole Lews ...". Similarly, the garbled Bannatyne Manuscript indicates that the MacNeacails held Lewis from the Kings of Mann, and that the clan's possession of the island terminated though the marriage of an heiress to a MacLeod. The manuscript also states that a branch of the MacNeacails held Waternish on Skye before the MacLeods. Other traditions associate the MacNeacails with the mainland in Assynt and Coigach; the ruins of Caisteal Mhic Neacail ("MacNeacail's Castle") near Ullapool may well corroborate such traditions of the mainland. The MacNeacails once also had possession of Lewis before losing their lands to the MacLeods through the marriage of a MacNeacail heiress. In Waternish, on St. Columba's Isle, at the head of Loch Snizort, there is a small chapel on the south side of the main building, which is still known as aiteadhlaic Mhic Nicail, Nicholson's Aisle; and here lies an effigy of a warrior, dressed in the ling quilted coat, or habergion; and the clogaid or conical helmet, represented in the figure of the Lord of the Isles, No. XI. It is to be regretted, that, with few expectations, in the inscriptions on those stones, numerous in the islands, are now illegible. On the island is a stone plaque that has engraved: “Saint Columba’s Island. Ancient burial ground and site of Cathedral Church of the Bishops of the Isles from 1079 to 1498. (However, in 1433, the Bishop's seat was moved to Iona and Angus, Bishop of the Isles, brother to Alexander of Islay, Earl of Ross, was buried on Iona in the Cathedral there.) Similarly ancient is the mortuary chapel, Nicolson’s Aisle, where, according to tradition, twenty-eight Chiefs of that Clan are buried.”


Contemporary Waternish

Waternish now has a growing population and is home to various arts and crafts enterprises. Whilst the main industry on Waternish is tourism, there has also been a revival in recent years of crofting or
small-scale agriculture A smallholding or smallholder is a small farm operating under a small-scale agriculture model. Definitions vary widely for what constitutes a smallholder or small-scale farm, including factors such as size, food production technique or technolo ...
. The local school is called Knockbreck. The school has struggled recently due to an ageing population which has resulted in only 4 students currently attending and the school was scheduled for closure in summer 2015. The local pub is the Stein Inn, which dates back to 1790 and is the oldest on Skye. Trumpan was the site of the skirmish known as the Battle of the Spoiling Dyke. The churchyard is the burial ground of
Rachel Chiesley, Lady Grange Rachel Chiesley (baptised 4 February 1679 – 12 May 1745), usually known as Lady Grange, was the wife of James Erskine, Lord Grange, Lord Grange, a Scottish lawyer with Jacobitism, Jacobite sympathies. After 25 years of marriage and ...
.Macauley, Margaret (2009), ''The Prisoner of St Kilda: The true story of the unfortunate Lady Grange'', Edinburgh; Luath. , p. 149


See also

* Land raid


References


External links

{{Scottish provinces, insular Landforms of the Isle of Skye Peninsulas of Scotland Landforms of Highland (council area)