Visit the Skye Museum of Island Life to learn about its history

A must-see is the Skye Museum of Island Life in the village of Kilmuir, established forty years ago to preserve the island’s traditional architecture and to tell the story of life here up until the end of the 19th century through its exhibits. It consists of a collection of fairly rustic cottages, sparsely furnished, which a local farmer, Jonathan McDonald, restored with his own hands, gathering artefacts and tools of the trade. Commonly known as crofts, the typical houses of Skye had a low, compact shape that enabled them to withstand the violent winter storms. There was no possibility of importing materials other than stone and wood; moreover, building work was a communal and cooperative endeavour: neighbours helped one another, in keeping with the spirit of sharing that has characterised life on the island for most of its long history. Of particular interest is the so-called Weaver’s House, which housed a fully functioning workshop for processing flax and wool, used respectively to make shirts and blankets. Sheep graze around the museum just as they did in the past, when their wool was sheared with the shears—now on display—and then boiled in large copper pots and dyed with natural dyes extracted from herbs.