Flodigarry & Kilmuir
A little to the North of Staffin is the township of Flodigarry, notable for its superb country house hotel restaurant and the Backpackers Hostel beside it. The road continues around the most northerly tip of Skye through the village of Kilmaluag and follows the coast to Uig.
Whether visitors come this way to look for ghosts at Duntulm Castle or visiting The Skye Museum of Island life they cannot help but notice how history has shaped the place and its people.
Kilmuir lies at the far north of the peninsula. The graveyard has a memorial to the famous Flora MacDonald, who was well known for smuggling Bonnie Prince Charlie across the sea to Skye, disguised as her maid. They stayed at the nearby Monkstadt house which has recently been restored. St Columba was also reported to have first landed here and built a monestry just north of Monkstadt, on an island in the now drained lake Calium Chille.
The placenames here all refer to the religious importance of these places. The Gaelic cill means church giving “church of Mary” for Kilmuir and Chapel of Saint Moluag for Kilmaluag. Monkstadt means Monks farm in norse. It is a measure of how important these early Christian sites were that these names have so endured the passage of time.
At Linicro, just South of Monkstadt, the White-wave outdoor centre provides the chance to try numerous outdoor adventure activities and a compelling excuse to travel to the far North of Skye. There is accommodation on site in the form of wooden glamping wigwams but a day spent here is well worth a drive.