Stein ( gd, Steinn) is a

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 ...

, situated on the north eastern shore of

Loch Bay ''Loch'' () is the Scottish Gaelic, Scots and Irish word for a lake or sea inlet. It is cognate with the Manx lough, Cornish logh, and one of the Welsh words for lake, llwch. In English English and Hiberno-English, the anglicised spellin ...

, in the west of the

Waternish Waternish or Vaternish ( gd, Bhàtairnis) is a peninsula approximately long on the island of Skye, Scotland, situated between Loch Dunvegan and Loch Snizort in the northwest of the island, and originally inhabited and owned by Clan MacNeacail/ ...

peninsula, 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 the

Highlands Highland is a broad term for areas of higher elevation, such as a mountain range or mountainous plateau. Highland, Highlands, or The Highlands, may also refer to: Places Albania * Dukagjin Highlands Armenia * Armenian Highlands Australia *Sou ...

of Scotland. Previously known as Lochbay, it is in the council area of

Highland Highlands or uplands are areas of high elevation such as a mountainous region, elevated mountainous plateau or high hills. Generally speaking, upland (or uplands) refers to ranges of hills, typically from up to while highland (or highlands) is ...

History

In 1790, the British Fisheries Society planned a fishing port to be designed by

Thomas Telford Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE, (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scot ...

. However, poor management of the project, and the lack of enthusiasm shown by the local

crofting Crofting is a form of land tenure and small-scale food production particular to the Scottish Highlands, the islands of Scotland, and formerly on the Isle of Man. Within the 19th century townships, individual crofts were established on the bett ...

population for fishing, meant only a small proportion of the scheme was constructed. By 1837 the Society had made a loss of £3,000 and seven years later it sold off the land it had acquired. Only a few structures were completed to Telford's design, including a pier of 1796–1802, a storehouse of 1795 (now converted to housing), and possibly the now-ruined smithy of 1799. Stein Inn - geograph

The 18th-century Stein Inn is the oldest pub on Skye. The folk singer

Donovan Donovan Phillips Leitch (born 10 May 1946), known mononymously as Donovan, is a Scottish musician, songwriter, and record producer. He developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelic rock and world mus ...

had a house in Stein during the 1970s."Donovan"
isbuc.co.uk Retrieved 6 June 2010.

Local area

The village of

Dunvegan Dunvegan ( gd, Dùn Bheagain) is a village on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. It is famous for Dunvegan Castle, seat of the chief of Clan MacLeod. Dunvegan is within the parish of Duirinish, and Duirinish Parish Church is at Dunvegan. In 2011 i ...

lies approximately south along the B888 road. Near the junction of this road with the A850, just from Stein is the Fairy Bridge. According to tradition as related by R.C. MacLeod one of the chiefs of

Clan MacLeod Clan MacLeod (; gd, Clann Mac Leòid ) is a Highland Scottish clan associated with the Isle of Skye. There are two main branches of the clan: the MacLeods of Harris and Dunvegan, whose chief is MacLeod of MacLeod, are known in Gaelic as ' ("se ...

married a fairy; however, after twenty years she is forced to leave him and return to fairyland. She bade farewell to the chief at the Fairy Bridge and gave him the

Fairy Flag The Fairy Flag (Scottish Gaelic: ''Am Bratach Sìth'') is an heirloom of the chiefs of Clan MacLeod. It is held in Dunvegan Castle along with other notable heirlooms, such as the Dunvegan Cup and Sir Rory Mor's Horn. The Fairy Flag is known ...

. She promised that if it was waved in times of danger and distress, help would be given on three occasions. A similar tradition, related by John Arnott MacCulloch, stated that although the fairy's gift had the power to save both her husband and his clan, afterwards an

invisible Invisibility is the state of an object that cannot be seen. An object in this state is said to be ''invisible'' (literally, "not visible"). The phenomenon is studied by physics and perceptual psychology. Since objects can be seen by light in ...

being would come to take both the flag and its bearer away—never to be seen again.

Notes

{{Skye Populated places in the Isle of Skye