Broadford ( gd, An t-Àth Leathann), together with nearby Harrapool, is the second-largest settlement on the Isle of Skye,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. 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, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlemen ...

. To the

Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to 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 ...

, 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 ( gd, Clann MhicFhionghain ) is a Highland Scottish clan from the islands of Mull and Skye, in the Inner Hebrides. Popular tradition gives the clan a Dalriadic Gaelic origin. The 19th-century historian W. F. Skene named the clan ...

against the

Norsemen The Norsemen (or Norse people) were a North Germanic ethnolinguistic group of the Early Middle Ages, during which they spoke the Old Norse language. The language belongs to the North Germanic branch of the Indo-European languages and is the pr ...

. From the late 1700s Broadford was a cattle market. In 1812,

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 ...

built the road from

Portree Portree (; gd, Port Rìgh, ) is the largest town on, and capital of, the Isle of Skye in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Murray, W.H. (1966) ''The Hebrides''. London. Heinemann. Pages 154-155. It is the location for the only secondary school o ...

Kyleakin Kyleakin (; Scottish Gaelic: ''Caol Àcain'') is a village situated on the east coast of the Isle of Skye in the Inner Hebrides, Scotland. The village is along the strait of Kyle Akin opposite the northwest Scottish mainland town of Kyle of Loch ...

. Veterans of the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

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 Drambuie is a golden-coloured, 40% ABV liqueur made from Scotch whisky, heather honey, herbs and spices. The brand was owned by the MacKinnon family for 100 years, and was bought by William Grant & Sons in 2014. Etymology The name "Drambuie ...

liqueur was given by

Bonnie Prince Charlie Bonnie, is a Scottish given name and is sometimes used as a descriptive reference, as in the Scottish folk song, My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean. It comes from the Scots language word "bonnie" (pretty, attractive), or the French bonne (good). That ...

Clan MacKinnon Clan MacKinnon ( gd, Clann MhicFhionghain ) is a Highland Scottish clan from the islands of Mull and Skye, in the Inner Hebrides. Popular tradition gives the clan a Dalriadic Gaelic origin. The 19th-century historian W. F. Skene named the clan ...

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 The Skye Marble Railway was a narrow gauge industrial railway on the Isle of Skye, Scotland which operated from 1910 to 1912. Marble was discovered near Kilchrist in Strath Suardal about south west of Broadford around 1907. A large factory ...

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 Scottish writer best known for his work '' A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland'' (1703; second edition 1716). This book is particularly noted for ...

mentions the quarrying of marble near

Torrin Torrin ( gd, Na Torrain) is a settlement on the island of Skye in Scotland. Geography The crofting and fishing village of Torrin lies on the eastern shore of Loch Slapin, southwest of Broadford (''An t-Àth Leathann''), on the road to Elgol ...

as early as 1698, and

Thomas Pennant Thomas Pennant (14 June OS 172616 December 1798) was a Welsh 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 h ...

’s records of his Scottish tours of 1771–1775, state that the altar in

Iona Abbey Iona Abbey is an abbey located on the island of Iona, just off the Isle of Mull on the West Coast of Scotland. It is one of the oldest Christian religious centres in Western Europe. The abbey was a focal point for the spread of Christianity t ...

was made of Skye marble. The highly ornamental white marble was also used in

Hamilton Palace Hamilton Palace was a country house in Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, Scotland. The former seat of the Dukes of Hamilton, it dated from the 14th century and was subsequently much enlarged in the 17th and 19th centuries.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 Broadford may refer to: Places *Broadford, Victoria, Australia *Broadford, County Clare, Republic of Ireland *Broadford, County Limerick, Republic of Ireland *Broadford, Skye, Scotland *Broadford, Pennsylvania, United States *Broadford, Virginia, U ...

, on the A87 between

and the

Skye Bridge The Skye Bridge ( gd, Drochaid an Eilein Sgitheanaich) is a road bridge over Loch Alsh, Scotland, connecting the Isle of Skye to the island of Eilean Bàn. The name is also used for the whole Skye Crossing, which further connects Eilean Bàn ...

. The settlement is overlooked by the Red

Cuillin The Cuillin ( gd, An Cuiltheann) 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 Slig ...

Geology

The mineral harkerite was first found near Broadford by the geologist

Alfred Harker Alfred Harker 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, and carried out field mapping ...

Wildlife

A variety of marine life can be seen in Broadford Bay including otters, seals and on very rare occasions

orca whale The orca or killer whale (''Orcinus orca'') is a toothed whale belonging to the oceanic dolphin family, of which it is the largest member. It is the only extant species in the genus '' Orcinus'' and is recognizable by its black-and-white ...

s. Birds that can sometimes be spotted at the bay include the

whooper swan The whooper swan ( /ˈhuːpə(ɹ) swɒn/) (''Cygnus cygnus''), also known as the common swan, pronounced ''hooper swan'', is a large northern hemisphere swan. It is the Eurasian counterpart of the North American trumpeter swan, and the type speci ...

brent goose The brant or brent goose (''Branta bernicla'') is a small goose of the genus ''Branta''. There are three subspecies, all of which winter along temperate-zone sea-coasts and breed on the high-Arctic tundra. The Brent oilfield was named after t ...

red-throated diver The red-throated loon (North America) or red-throated diver (Britain and Ireland) (''Gavia stellata'') is a migratory aquatic bird found in the northern hemisphere. The most widely distributed member of the loon or diver family, it breeds prim ...

and the black-tailed godwit.

Climate

Broadford has an oceanic climate (

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

: ''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

Gulf Oil Gulf Oil was a major global oil company in operation from 1901 to 1985. The eighth-largest American manufacturing company in 1941 and the ninth-largest in 1979, Gulf Oil was one of the so-called Seven Sisters oil companies. Prior to its merger ...

garage, restaurants (including the Broadford Hotel, Harbour Restaurant, Claymore, Dunollie Hotel, Hebridean Hotel and Red Skye), and a

youth hostel A hostel is a form of low-cost, short-term shared sociable lodging where guests can rent a bed, usually a bunk bed in a dormitory, with shared use of a lounge and sometimes a kitchen. Rooms can be mixed or single-sex and have private or shared ...

. The local hospital, the Mackinnon Memorial Hospital, has a small ward and

casualty department An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the acute care of pati ...

Transport

Road

The A87 travels through Broadford, on its route from

Invergarry Invergarry ( gd, Inbhir Garadh) is a village in the Highlands of Scotland. It is in the Great Glen, near where the River Garry flows into Loch Oich Loch Oich (; gd, Loch Omhaich) is a freshwater loch in the Highlands of Scotland which forms p ...

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 Elgol ( gd, Ealaghol) is a village on the shores of Loch Scavaig towards the end of the Strathaird peninsula in the Isle of Skye, in the Scottish Highlands. Name According to tradition, its name derives from a battle fought with five ships by ...

. 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's common to see rainbows over Broadford bay, caused by the high moisture content of the air above it.

Air

Broadford Airfield Isle of Skye (Broadford) Airfield (also known as Ashaig Airstrip or Broadford Aerodrome) is a small airfield on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, with a single runway. It is next to the hamlet of Ashaig, near the village of Broadford. History The ...

( IATA: SKL; ICAO: 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 ''Heavy Horses'' is the eleventh studio album by British progressive rock band Jethro Tull, released on 10 April 1978. The album is often considered the second in a trio of folk rock albums released by the band at the end of the 1970s, alongsi ...

'' album) which is named after this town. * There is also a song entitled 'The Trip to Broadford' on the 1990 album ''

Room to Roam ''Room to Roam'' is the fifth studio album by The Waterboys; it continued the folk rock sound of 1988's '' Fisherman's Blues'', but was less of a commercial success, reaching #180 on the '' Billboard'' Top 200 after its release in September 1990 ...

'' by

The Waterboys The Waterboys are a folk rock band formed in Edinburgh in 1983 by Scottish musician Mike Scott. The band's membership, past and present, has been composed mainly of musicians from Scotland, Ireland, Wales and England. Mike Scott has remained ...

. * The opening sequence from the 1980 film Flash Gordon, was filmed at the Airstrip in the summer of 1978.

References

External links

Undiscovered Scotland - Broadford
{{DEFAULTSORT:Broadford, Isle Of Skye Populated places in the Isle of Skye