Skye Museum ofIsland Life

Jonathan MacDonald, a Skye-born crofter later appointed MBE for his work on crofting and community life, opened the Skye Museum of Island Life at Kilmuir in 1965 to keep a way of life he could see disappearing. He gathered and restored eight thatched buildings on the site, including a croft house lived in until 1957, a weaver's cottage, a smithy and a ceilidh house, each furnished to show island life at the end of the nineteenth century. One family story from the croft house recalls a 1933 visit by the future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, when the occupants stayed in their bedroom rather than come out to receive them. The museum sits on the Trotternish peninsula overlooking the sea toward the Outer Hebrides and continues to run as an independent local attraction.