Camuscross ( gd, Camus Croise) is a small

crofting township A croft is a fenced or enclosed area of land, usually small and arable, and usually, but not always, with a crofter's dwelling thereon. A crofter is one who has tenure and use of the land, typically as a tenant farmer, especially in rural area ...

on the

Isle of Skye The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye (; gd, An t-Eilean Sgitheanach or ; sco, Isle o Skye), is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated ...

in Scotland. Camuscross is situated on Camus Croise bay, on the west shore of the

Sound of Sleat The Sound of Sleat is a narrow sea channel off the western coast of Scotland. It divides the Sleat peninsula on the south-east side of the Isle of Skye from Morar, Knoydart and Glenelg on the Scottish mainland. The Sound extends in a south-sout ...

, in the

Highland Council area Highland ( gd, A' Ghàidhealtachd, ; sco, Hieland) is a council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in the United Kingdom. It was the 7th most populous council area in Scotland at the 2011 census. It share ...

. It lies close to the village of

Isleornsay Isleornsay (Scottish Gaelic: Eilean Iarmain) is a village lying off the main Armadale to Sleat road (the A851) on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. It overlooks, but is not upon, the island of Ornsay. The island itself shelters one of the best natur ...

and the island of

Ornsay Ornsay is a small tidal island to the east of the Sleat peninsula on the Isle of Skye in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Description The island provides good shelter to a natural harbour which is overlooked by the village of Isleornsay. The " ...

History

In the early 19th century, Lord MacDonald created a township of 40 small crofts, on average. The hill grazing was less than a tenth of the size of most other

Sleat Sleat is a peninsula and civil parish on the island of Skye in the Highland council area of Scotland, known as "the garden of Skye". It is the home of the clan ''MacDonald of Sleat''. The name comes from the Scottish Gaelic , which in turn comes ...

townships, with many more crofters. It is thought that the crofts were deliberately made too small to live on, forcing the crofters to fish during the

herring Herring are forage fish, mostly belonging to the family of Clupeidae. Herring often move in large schools around fishing banks and near the coast, found particularly in shallow, temperate waters of the North Pacific and North Atlantic Oceans, i ...

boom.

Harbour

Isle Ornsay harbour was one of the most promising harbours in the whole of Skye, for a time the main connection to the mainland. Isle Ornsay post office, situated where the estate office now is, was the main post office for the whole of

. Isle Ornsay harbour saw the departure of emigration ships. The ''William Nichol'', a government emigration ship left on 6 July 1837, bound for Australia as part of "Langs" Bounty Scheme. Conditions on the voyage were poor, with the deaths of 19 children and 2 adults from a

manifest Manifest may refer to: Computing * Manifest file, a metadata file that enumerates files in a program or package * Manifest (CLI), a metadata text file for CLI assemblies Events * Manifest (convention), a defunct anime festival in Melbourne, Aus ...

of over 300. The ''Sillery'' departed on 7 September 1853 for Canada, including 332 people from

Knoydart Knoydart (Scottish Gaelic: ''Cnòideart'') is a peninsula in Lochaber, Highland, on the west coast of Scotland. Knoydart is sandwiched between Lochs Nevis and Hourn — often translated as "Loch Heaven" (from the Gaelic ''Loch Néimh'') an ...

and the Glengary estates, who had been cleared to make way for sheep. Houses were burnt and levelled to the ground. Four young men from Inverguseran 'escaped' over the hills to

Lochaber Lochaber ( ; gd, Loch Abar) is a name applied to a part of the Scottish Highlands. Historically, it was a provincial lordship consisting of the parishes of Kilmallie and Kilmonivaig, as they were before being reduced in extent by the creation ...

Camuscross Community Initiative

Camuscross Community Steering Group was set up in February 2007 to develop various projects for community benefits. It is working on affordable house sites, a network of heritage paths with interpretation, and hoping to build a local shop and cafe. The group has been researching local history and has collected a number of place names from local people. It publishes a newsletter called ''An Lianag'' – after the name of the

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

in the middle of the village, which is where the crofters traditionally met to discuss township matters. The Steering Group organise the Camuscross Crofting Olympics, an afternoon of serious and not-so-serious competitions in August. It became a community company, becoming incorporated on 22 December 2008, with the name of ''Camuscross Community Initiative''. When the company decided to add the neighbouring crofting township to its area of benefit, it became ''Camuscross & Duisdale Initiative''.

Footnotes

{{Use dmy dates, date=September 2011 Populated places in the Isle of Skye