Island is a bonny place to Skyve off

The sights of the most famous of Scottish islands leave GRAHAM SIMMONS impressed. The sounds, however, he could do without.

In this age of electronic music, it's tempting to believe that the bagpipes are way past their use-by date. But on the Isle of Skye they're alive and kicking.

As the piper leads his troupe through the village square of Portree, the music could evoke the soft patter of rain on heather, or multi-coloured clouds over craggy peaks, if only the lamentable repertoire went a little beyond the usual selection of standard favourites.

However, the dirge is soon forgotten as we wonder at the natural beauty of Skye.

The colours are a total eye-symphony - lime-green moss on weathered black rocks, yellow-dock spikes, red hawthorn berries, and the emerald shades of fir and pine trees over grassy meadows.

Even the skies of Skye take on a mystical quality, as though a celestial landscape artist has dipped a brush in the heather and used it to paint the clouds. Vivid shades from pink to mauve to kirk-purple tint the shadows reflected on the ground. A seabird alights on a cliff, its plumage refracting the sun's struggling rays into a kaleidoscope of colour.

Skye's population is increasing for the first time in 150 years thanks to a revival of all things Gaelic. Many island children are being taught the language, and near Armadale, in the south of the island, a Gaelic language college draws students from throughout Scotland.

A Gaelic music festival from the last week in May to the second week of June attracts visitors from around the world.

Just out of Portree on a scenic arm of Loch Port Righ, the Aros Centre is dedicated to the revival. The Aros Experience is a multimedia presentation of the history of the Isle of Skye, including the times of the Clearances, when thousands of men, women and children were forcibly evicted from the land.

When Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped to Skye in 1745, after his defeat by the English at the Battle of Culloden, he set in train an orgy of revenge by the victors. Thousands of "Skyelanders" were forced from their crofts, with the connivance of some Highland chiefs, and sent to work as slaves on the plantations of North Carolina.

When Dr Samuel Johnson and his biographer James Boswell visited Skye in 1773, they spoke of a population downtrodden and demoralised. Only at the Napier Commission of 1893 were the crofters' grievances heard for the first time.

Because public transport is limited, hiring a car is the best way to tour the island. Our first destination is the spectacular Cuillin Hills, with the best hiking in Scotland.

The road from Portree to the Cuillins veers skyward at the picturesque village of Sligeachan (or Sligachan in English - all the road signs are in Gaelic first, English second). At the carpark at Glenbrittle, at the end of the Cuillin Rd, we set off on one of several walking trails that lead up the ridge.

It doesn't take us long to get lost. Fortunately, an elderly German woman with a walking stick appears from the opposite direction, map in hand, and soon we're on the right trail, leading up to the brooding Loch an Fhir-bhallaich. Behind us, the views out over the Loch Brittle inlet are truly spectacular.

The Cuillin Hills make for sensational walking, with lochs and corries (whirlpools) dotting the 13km range. Along the hiking paths, heather and sedges compete for space.

While the tallest peak (Sgurr Alasdair) is just a little over 1000m, the air nevertheless feels cool and bracing. It's difficult to leave the Cuillins, but the rest of the island beckons. It is hard to resist an invitation to visit the Talisker single-malt distillery, near the village of Carbost. The distillery, built in 1830 despite the fiery protestations of the then parish minister the Rev Robert MacLeod, bills itself as one of just six producers of "classic malts."

Talisker is a superb brew, at once both peaty and smoky, as though the essence of the soil I've been treading in the Cuillins has seeped up through the soles of my boots as far as my taste buds.

Crossing a saddle to the dramatic Loch Snizort, the road heads north along the coast of the Trotternish Peninsula. The entrance to the fishing town of Uig is marked by a striking broch, a prehistoric stone tower.

At these latitudes, Old Norse place names recall the Viking invaders who plundered these shores a millennium ago. Later, the Norse became settlers rather than raiders, at places still bearing names such as Fiskavaig, Herebost, Hunglader and Monkstadt.

Twisting and turning upon itself like an itchy snake, the road north of Uig traverses some of Skye's most spectacular scenery.

Near the ruins of Duntulm Castle, where Viking longships once rode at anchor, we meet the Conor family, raising Cheviot sheep, whose wool is a key ingredient in the much-prized Harris Tweed.



Back in Portree, the picture-postcard shops and houses that line the waterfront glow with a golden radiance. It's time to leave the Isle of Skye - not as Bonnie Prince Charlie did, in a hasty retreat - but with a real feeling of nostalgia.

Contact: The Tourist Information Centre in Bayfield House, Bayfield Rd, Portree, Isle of Skye IV51 9EL. Ph (0044) 1478 612137, fax (0044) 1478 612141.