page_title: Trotternish
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Trotternish / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Duntulm Castle, Skye
context_page_description: Trotternish or Tròndairnis is the northernmost peninsula of the Isle of Skye, in Scotland. Its most northerly point, Rubha Hùinis, is the most northerly point of Skye.
  One of the peninsula's better-known features is the Trotternish landslip, a massive landslide that runs almost the full length of the peninsula, some 30 kilometres. The landslip contains two of Skye's most famous landmarks: the Old Man of Storr, an isolated rocky pinnacle, and the Quiraing, an area of dramatic and unusual rock formations. The summit of The Storr, on whose slopes the Old Man of Storr is located, is the highest point of the peninsula. The north-eastern part of the peninsula around Quiraing is designated as a National Scenic Area and the entire landslip is a Special Area of Conservation.
  Dinosaur footprints have been found at An Corran, which is also a Mesolithic hunter-gatherer site dating to the 7th millennium BC. The ruins of the 14th–15th-century Duntulm Castle stand at the northern end of the peninsula.
  The three major settlements on Trotternish are Portree, generally regarded as the capital of Skye, Uig, a ferry terminus, and Staffin. Trotternish is the strongest Gaelic-speaking area of Skye.
context_section_description: A Mesolithic hunter-gatherer site dating to the 7th millennium BC at An Corran in Staffin is one of the oldest archaeological sites in Scotland. Its occupation is probably linked to that of the rock shelter at Sand, Applecross, on the mainland coast of Wester Ross where tools made of a mudstone from An Corran have been found. Surveys of the area between the two shores of the Inner Sound and Sound of Raasay have revealed 33 sites with potentially Mesolithic deposits.
  The ruined Duntulm Castle stands on a promontory at the northern end of the peninsula, near the hamlet of Duntulm. During the 17th century it was the seat of the chiefs of Clan MacDonald of Sleat, and is a scheduled monument. The castle is believed to stand on the site of a prehistoric broch or dun known as Dun David, or Dun Dhaibhidh, although no archaeological evidence has been found for this predecessor. The castle was built in the 14th and 15th centuries, when the area was subject to feuds between the rival MacLeod and Macdonald clans, and was abandoned around 1732, when Sir Alexander MacDonald built a new residence, Monkstadt House, 5 miles (8 kilometres) to the south.
  Flodigarry north of Staffin was between 1750 and 1772 the home of Flora MacDonald, the Jacobite made famous by her part in Charles Edward Stuart's escape after his defeat at Culloden. She later moved to Kingsburgh on the southwestern coast of Trotternish, and it was here that Boswell and Johnson met her during their tour of the Western Isles in 1773. Johnson, who held Jacobite views when younger, commented that she was a woman of "soft features, gentle manners and elegant presence".
caption: Duntulm Castle.
exif: {}