Old Skye Tales: Traditions, Reflections and Memories - Softcover

Mackenzie, William

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1841582018 ISBN 13: 9781841582016

Publisher: Birlinn/Polygon/Mercat, 2008

Synopsis

Mackenzie’s Old Skye Tales is an extraordinary compilation of lore, legend, tradition and incident from the Isle of Skye, collected and written by a man of considerable intelligence and observation. It is one of the most important sources for the history of the island. As well as containing a large amount of information of the geography of the island (particularly the north), there are also important sections on crofting, the Church, as well as local superstitions, sayings, second sight and even local characters of his time.

This edition was first published by the Maclean Press in 1995.

About this title

About the Author

William Mackenzie was born in 1851 in Melness, Sutherland though moved to Skye at an early age. He began teaching in Uig and in 1879 was appointed headmaster of Valtos in Staffin. He became active in the crofter agitation of the 1880s and was one of the crofters' representatives at the Napier Commission of 1884. He retired in 1915 and began to write his reminiscences, which were published in two books in 1930 and 1934. The present volume is an edited compilation of these two works.

Born in Glasgow of Highland stock, Alasdair Maclean left school at fourteen to work in the Clydeside shipyards. National Service in the Merchant Marine followed and then service in the British and Indian Armies. He returned to Scotland to read English at Edinburgh University before returning home to Sanna in Ardnamurchan. A poet of some repute, this is his only book of non fiction.

Edition details

• Publisher: Birlinn/Polygon/Mercat
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1841582018
• ISBN 13: 9781841582016
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 180