Broadford ( ), together with nearby
Harrapool, is the second-largest settlement on the
Isle of Skye
The Isle of Skye, or simply 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 by the Cuillin, the rocky slopes of which provide some of ...
,
Scotland
Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...
. Lying in the shadow of the Red Cuillin mountains, Broadford is within the parish of Strath. A long meandering village historically consisting of a few buildings on either side of the Broadford River, the many small townships around the wide sweep of the bay have grown together and Broadford now stretches for around the southern side of Broadford Bay.
History
Like many places in Skye, Broadford derives its name from
Old Norse
Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...
. To the
Vikings
Vikings were seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway, and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded, and settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...
, this was ''Breiðafjorðr'' – the wide bay. The Gaelic name is of modern derivation and assumes that the "ford" element meant a river crossing.
West of Broadford in Glen Suardal, on the lower slopes of
Beinn na Caillich, is Goir a' Bhlàir, 'the field of battle' (
). The battle concerned was apparently a decisive action by the Gaelic
Clan Mackinnon
Clan MacKinnon ( ) is a Scottish Highlands, Highland Scottish clan from the islands of Isle of Mull, Mull and Skye, in the Inner Hebrides.
Popular tradition gives the clan a Dal Riada, Dalriadic Gaelic origin. The 19th-century historian W. F. S ...
against the
Norsemen
The Norsemen (or Northmen) were a cultural group in the Early Middle Ages, originating among speakers of Old Norse in Scandinavia. During the late eighth century, Scandinavians embarked on a Viking expansion, large-scale expansion in all direc ...
.
From the late 1700s Broadford was a cattle market. In 1812,
Thomas Telford
Thomas Telford (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 Scotland, as well ...
built the road from
Portree to
Kyleakin. Veterans of the
Napoleonic Wars
{{Infobox military conflict
, conflict = Napoleonic Wars
, partof = the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
, image = Napoleonic Wars (revision).jpg
, caption = Left to right, top to bottom:Battl ...
settled during the first half of the 19th century, a legacy of which is a section of the village that is to this day named Waterloo. Writing in the middle of the 19th century,
Alexander Smith said, "If Portree is the London of Skye, Broadford is its Manchester."
Legend holds that the recipe for
Drambuie liqueur was given by
Bonnie Prince Charlie to
Clan MacKinnon
Clan MacKinnon ( ) is a Scottish Highlands, Highland Scottish clan from the islands of Isle of Mull, Mull and Skye, in the Inner Hebrides.
Popular tradition gives the clan a Dal Riada, Dalriadic Gaelic origin. The 19th-century historian W. F. S ...
who then passed it onto James Ross late 19th century. Ross ran the Broadford Inn (now the Broadford Hotel), where he developed and improved the recipe, initially for his friends and then later to patrons. Ross then began to sell it further afield and the name was registered as a trademark in 1893.
Throughout the 1800s, marble was extracted from a quarry at the foot of Beinn na Caillich (Hill of the Old Woman) and in 1904 the
Skye Marble Railway was built to carry the marble to the new pier at Broadford. In December 1910 a steam locomotive named the Skylark was in use on the line until the work ceased in 1914.
The marble industry involved transporting the marble by hand to Loch Cill Chriosd, where it was dressed and polished using water power from a small dam, before being taken to the waiting ships at the old pier. Although there are significant early records of the much prized Skye marble, quarrying did not proceed on a commercial scale until more modern infrastructure was put in place, and the establishment of Skye Marble in 1907.
Martin Martin
Martin Martin (Scottish Gaelic: Màrtainn MacGilleMhàrtainn) (–9 October 1718) was a Scotland, Scottish writer best known for his work ''A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland (Martin), A Description of the Western Islands of Scotlan ...
mentions the quarrying of marble near
Torrin as early as 1698, and
Thomas Pennant
Thomas Pennant (16 December 1798) was a Welsh natural history, naturalist, traveller, writer and antiquarian. He was born and lived his whole life at his family estate, Downing Hall, near Whitford, Flintshire, in Wales.
As a naturalist he had ...
’s records of his Scottish tours of 1771–1775, state that the altar in
Iona Abbey was made of Skye marble. The highly ornamental white marble was also used in
Hamilton Palace and
Armadale Castle.
Sleat & Strath AFC
Broadford is home to a successful football club in the Skye and Lochalsh Football League known as 'Sleat and Strath', originally just known as Sleat.
Geography
Broadford lies on the south-west corner of
Broadford Bay, on the
A87 between
Portree and the
Skye Bridge. The settlement is overlooked by the Red
Cuillin
The Cuillin () is a range of mostly jagged rocky mountains on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. The main Cuillin ridge is also called the Black Cuillin to distinguish it from the Red Cuillin ('), which lie to the east of Glen Sligachan.R. Anderson & ...
.
Geology
The mineral
harkerite was first found near Broadford by the geologist
Alfred Harker
Alfred Harker Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS (19 February 1859 – 28 July 1939) was an English geologist who specialised in petrology and interpretive petrography. He was lecturer in petrology at the University of Cambridge for many years, a ...
.
Wildlife
A variety of marine life can be seen in Broadford Bay including
otter
Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which includes weasels, badgers, mink, and wolverines, among ...
s,
seals and on very rare occasions
orca whales.
Birds that can sometimes be spotted at the bay include the
whooper swan
The whooper swan ( /ˈhuːpə(ɹ) swɒn/ "hooper swan"; ''Cygnus cygnus''), also known as the common swan, is a large northern hemisphere swan. It is the Eurasian counterpart of the North American trumpeter swan, and the type species for the genu ...
,
brent goose,
red-throated diver and the
black-tailed godwit.
Climate
Broadford has an
oceanic climate
An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate or maritime climate, is the temperate climate sub-type in Köppen climate classification, Köppen classification represented as ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of co ...
(
Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include:
* Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer
* Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan
* Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...
: ''Cfb''). The climate here is extremely wet, with over of rainfall a year on average. The nearest weather station to Broadford is located at Lusa, around to the east.
Economy
As well as being the home port to numerous fishing vessels, Broadford is also a key service centre for southern Skye. Services include the
Co-op supermarket combined with a 24-hour Asda filling station, restaurants (including the Broadford Hotel, Harbour Restaurant, Claymore, Dunollie Hotel, Hebridean Hotel and Red Skye), and a
youth hostel. The previous local hospital, the
Mackinnon Memorial Hospital, was replaced with opening of the much larger
Broadford Hospital in May 2022.
Transport
Road
The A87 travels through Broadford, on its route from
Invergarry to
Uig. The
A851 begins at a junction with the A87, towards the east end of Broadford, and continues to
Armadale. Meanwhile, the B8083 begins at a junction with the A87 at the western end of Broadford, and continues to
Elgol.
There is also a coastal road, (a left turn at Killbride) which can be found halfway along the B8083, this takes you down to a viewpoint at Loch Slapin. Public are able to catch either the 155 or 55 bus along this road.
Water
There are two piers within the vicinity of Broadford. One is at the east end of the village by the war memorial, the other and larger at Corry, at the north west end of the bay.
It is common to see rainbows over Broadford bay, caused by the high moisture content of the air above it.
Air
Broadford Airfield (
IATA
The International Air Transport Association (IATA ) is an airline trade association founded in 1945. IATA has been described as a cartel since, in addition to setting technical standards for airlines, IATA also organized tariff conferences tha ...
: SKL;
ICAO
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international sch ...
: EGEI) is located at nearby
Ashaig. The single asphalt runway is in length and oriented at 07/25.
In popular culture
* There is a song by the rock band
Jethro Tull called "Broadford Bazaar" (on the remastered version of the ''
Heavy Horses'' album) which is named after this town.
* There is also a song entitled 'The Trip to Broadford' on the 1990 album ''
Room to Roam'' by
The Waterboys.
* The opening sequence from the 1980 film Flash Gordon, was filmed at the Airstrip in the summer of 1978.
References
Further reading
*Ballin Smith, Beverley; Taylor, Simon; Williams, Gareth (eds) (2007) ''West Over Sea: Studies in Scandinavian Sea-Borne Expansion and Settlement Before 1300''. Leiden. Koninklijke Brill.
External links
Undiscovered Scotland - Broadford
{{DEFAULTSORT:Broadford, Isle Of Skye
Populated places in the Isle of Skye