Skye, Inverness Shire : Historical writing

Descriptive gazetteer entries

These other entries in our collection of descriptive gazetteers are also about Skye. You may be able to find further references to Skye in the descriptive gazetteers by doing a full-text search here.

Place Type of entry Source
Skye island Bartholomew
Skye an island Groome

Travel writing

This website includes the complete texts of books describing journeys around Britain, written between the twelfth and nineteenth centuries. Selecting one of the links below will take you to the first reference to Skye within the selected text. This will not always be a description of a visit: travellers often mention places other than where they are, for example as a basis for comparison.

Traveller Section No. of Refs.
Samuel Johnson Raasay, Portree and Dunvegan 16
James Boswell September 8th to 12th, 1773: Raasay; meeting with Flora McDonald 14
James Boswell Sept. 1st to 7th, 1773: Glen Moriston to Skye 11
James Boswell September 25th to October 2nd, 1773: South east Skye 11
James Boswell September 13th, 1773: Bonnie Prince Charlie's Escape 10
James Boswell September 21st to 24th, 1773: Dunvegan to Talisker 9
Samuel Johnson Arrival on Skye; Armadale 8
Samuel Johnson Coll 8
James Boswell September 14th to 20th, 1773: Dunvegan, Skye 7
Samuel Johnson Ostig, and Skye in general 6
Samuel Johnson The economy of the islands 5
James Boswell October 3rd to 8th, 1773: Coll 4
Daniel Defoe Letter 13, Part 2: Dundee, Aberdeen and the Highlands 4
Samuel Johnson Skye: Ulinish and Talisker 3
James Boswell August 27th to 31st, 1773: Forres to Glen Moriston via Inverness 2
James Boswell October 17th to 22nd, 1773: Inchkenneth and Iona 2
Samuel Johnson The inhabitants of the islands 2
Samuel Johnson Highland chieftains 2
Samuel Johnson Reasons for poverty and emigration 2
Samuel Johnson Iona and Lochbuie 2
Thomas Pennant August 30-September 5: The Great Glen and Argyll 2
Thomas Pennant Appendix VI: The Life of Sir Ewen Cameron of Lochiel 2
James Boswell Introduction 1
James Boswell August 18th to 20th, 1773: From Edinburgh to Montrose 1
James Boswell August 21st to 23rd, 1773: Montrose to Aberdeen 1
James Boswell October 9th to 16th, 1773: Mull 1
James Boswell October 23rd to 26th, 1773: Inveraray 1
William Camden Smaller Islands in the British Ocean 1
Samuel Johnson Political changes 1
Samuel Johnson Mull 1
Thomas Pennant August 18-29: Sutherland and Caithness 1

This website includes two large libraries, of historical travel writing and of entries from nineteenth century gazetteers describing places. We have text from these sources available for these places near your location:

Place Mentioned in Travel Writing Mentioned in Historical Gazetteer
Portree 16 2
Bracadale 0 2
Carbost 0 2
Raasay 26 2
Edinbain 0 1
Talisker 5 2
Snizort 1 4
Scalpay 1 2
Coruisk 0 2
Dunvegan 12 2
Duirinish 1 3
Bay 0 2
Strath 0 2
Uig 0 2
Rona 3 2
Broadford 0 2
Soay 0 2
Applecross 1 2
Staffin 0 3
Kilmuir 0 2

Names from historical writing

The following appear as names for Skye. Follow the links for what the author actually said:

Name Author Source
ISLE OF SKEY Daniel Defoe A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
ISLE OF SKYE Daniel Defoe A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain, divided into circuits or journies (London: JM Dent and Co, 1927).
SKIE William Camden Britain, or, a Chorographicall Description of the most flourishing Kingdomes, England, Scotland, and Ireland (London: George Bishop and John Norton, 1610).
Thomas Pennant A Tour in Scotland 1769 (London: Benjamin White, 1776).
SKY James Boswell The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides with Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (Oxford, Mississippi, 2004).
Samuel Johnson A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland (London: W. Strahan and T.Cadell, 1775).
Thomas Pennant A Tour in Scotland 1769 (London: Benjamin White, 1776).
SKYE John Bartholomew Gazetteer of the British Isles (Edinburgh: Bartholomew, 1887).
F.H. Groome Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (Edinburgh: T.C. Jack, 1882-4).

NB: These variant names come from our collections of historical travel writing and descriptive gazetteers:

  • The above links take you to the first reference to this particular version of the name within a book of travel writing, or to the relevant gazetteer entry.
  • Some names may derive from research by antiquarian writers such as William Camden and Thomas Pennant into the Roman, Saxon and medieval names of places. Their claims are not always supported by modern place-name researchers.
  • References by travel writers to the place using its "normal" name are not included. Descriptive gazetteer entries are included only if the name does not appear anywhere else.