| About Glendale |
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Glendale is not just a single village. It's a collection of townships: there's Milovaig, Holmisdale, Lephin, Fasach, Feriniquarrie and Waterstein. Each township has its own tale to tell and each offer beautiful scenery. Fasach: Gaelic: fàsach, “desert, wilderness” Holmisdale is a thriving crofting township in the popular Glendale area on the Duirinish peninsula in the north west of Skye. This is an area rich in places of interest including Neist Point Lighthouse, Glendale Toy Museum, Dunvegan Castle, Borreraig Park Piping Museum and the MacCrimmon Cairn, a memorial to the MacCrimmon family who served the MacLeods of Dunvegan for over three hundred years in unbroken succession. Also close by are breathtaking Coral Beaches and MacLeods Tables mountains. Local walks take you to quiet bays, waterfalls, river pools and deserted village ruins. Rich in wildlife and beauty, the area offers numerous opportunities for outdoor pursuits such as hillwalking, fishing, sailing and cycling. The "Glendale Estate" marked a milestone in crofter rights and as such this area has left a noticeable mark in history. Glendale Estate began as a dream of crofting freedom in the minds of a small group of dedicated men who met together to try to fight against the power of the landlords to evict crofters at will and to impose excessive rents and work burdens upon them. Foremost among them was John Macpherson, who became known as the Skye Martyr. The efforts of those men and other crofting activists led to the setting up of the Napier Commission in 1884 and the passing of the Crofting Act of 1886, which gave security of tenure to crofters for the first time. John Macpherson and the men of Glendale however refused to settle just for secure tenure. They maintained that the land was theirs by right, and that they and their heirs should not be subject to a landlord. One of the consequences of this continued defiance was that the then Liberal Prime Minister, William Gladstone, visited Glendale and was personally escorted about the Glen by John Macpherson to see for himself the suffering caused by the landlords. It is said that at the end of his visit Gladstone said, "John you are a clever chiel, and if I had you in the government, you and I could go places." "If I was in the Government," replied John, "you wouldn't be Prime Minister." |