This is quite simply the best, most detailed, and authoritative history of the island yet written. Originally published in 1930, this 1994 second edition includes a great deal of new materials and illustrations. Nicolson provides a thorough history of the families who lived on the island, their social conditions, and their literature and customs.

In this book William Mackenzie records a world of local legend, folklore and superstition, and charts the changes he saw in his lifetime in agriculture, education, the Church and, of course, emigration. He recounts the history of the leading families of Skye and also the lives and experiences of the crofters, for whose rights he actively campaigned in the 1880s. Old Skye Tales is a unique and valuable record, written by a man of intelligence and sensitivity, whose life spanned both the traditional and the modern world. 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. An entertaining and witty book, Old Skye Tales is a marvellous resource for the historian, as well as a fascinating compendium for all those who love one of Scotland's most famous islands. It is one of the most important sources for the history of the island.

Sung throughout the world, the Skye Boat Song evocatively brings alive the story of Bonnie Prince Charlie's famous journey from the Outer Hebrides to Skye, off Scotland's west coast, after his defeat at the Battle of Culloden.

Features tales of monsters who dwell in lakes, of small people who trap humans in earthen mounds where time stands still; of dark, shape- shifting spirits whose cloak of human form is betrayed by the sand and shells which fall from their hair. This work takes us far beyond Christian times to the edge of the Iron Age.