Isleornsay

The working harbour and Ornsay Lighthouse

On the drystone pier at Isleornsay there is still a cast-iron crane with a wooden jib, left over from when this was one of Skye's leading herring ports. Beside it stand a well and a small pyramidal structure that was later pressed into service as a dovecot. The pier group is what remains of a working harbour, and it sets the tone for the whole village, which gathers along the water on the east coast of Sleat and looks out across the Sound to the hills of Knoydart on the mainland.

The harbour is sheltered by the little tidal island of Ornsay, and on the rock beyond it stands Ornsay Lighthouse, a short white tower with a corbelled balcony and low keepers' cottages. David and Thomas Stevenson built it in 1857; its light was automated in 1962 and now shows white every eight seconds, visible for twelve nautical miles. There is no public access, though it is visible from the shore. In 1966 Gavin Maxwell Enterprises bought the keepers' cottages and let them out to holidaymakers, advertising a four-bedroom cottage with a twenty-seven-foot sitting room for fifty guineas a week.

Gaelic hospitality and whisky by the pier

The village runs on the Hotel Eilean Iarmain, which dates its history to 1888 and has made itself a centre of Gaelic culture. Its restaurant does hearty gastro-pub cooking, and its bar, Bar Am Pràban, is wood-panelled with an open fire. Both feed residents and non-residents, and dogs may sit with their owners in the bar. The kitchen leans on estate venison, local vegetables and langoustines landed at the old pier, with dishes such as an Eilean Iarmain venison hot pot, a venison burger, West Coast scallops with ginger and spring-onion sauce, monkfish scampi, beer-battered haddock, a coconut-and-chipotle vegetable stir-fry, and a chocolate-and-Gaelic-whisky mousse. Food is also served out on the waterfront lawn, and local musicians and singers play traditional music. The nineteenth-century Gaelic poet Màiri Mhòr nan Òran left a line that the hotel still prints on its menu: "When I reached Eilean Iarmain the furrows left my brow."

Beside the pier is Pràban na Linne's shop, where you can taste Gaelic whisky and gin and buy Eilean Iarmain venison, cards and gifts. Sir Iain Noble founded the firm in 1976 to make whisky for Gaelic-speaking Hebridean drinkers and to create work locally; its bottles carry names like Tè Bheag, Poit Dhubh and MacNaMara. Noble also founded the Gaelic college Sabhal Mòr Ostaig up the coast in 1973.

A community stop at Duisdale Beag

For everyday needs, head to An Crùbh at Duisdale Beag, near the turn off the A851. It was built by the community and holds a café, a general store and the Isle Ornsay post office under one roof, selling groceries, local produce and coffee.

The drovers' road to Leitir Fura

Walkers can pick up the Leitir Fura trail in Kinloch Forest, a strenuous four-and-a-half-mile route of about three hours along an old drovers' road to an abandoned township, with steep slopes, shallow fords and long views over the Sound to Knoydart. Sleat cattle were once driven this way to Kylerhea, where they swam the narrows to the mainland.

Ferries and the road south

Isleornsay sits on a single-track road off the A851, seven miles south of Broadford. The rail approach runs through Mallaig station and the forty-five-minute ferry to Armadale. Come down to the pier in the evening and the lighthouse will be counting out its eight seconds across the water, whether anyone is watching or not.