The Isle of Skye - and its Castle Dunvegan. There is no longer a need to go "Over the Sea to Skye," although you can listen to part of it here: http://www.towerrecords.com/product.aspx?pfid=1182806&title=Over+The+Sea+To+Skye+-+Folk+Songs+From+Around+The+World. Go to the dot com home site, then use the rest only as needed to get to it. You don't need to speed in the bonny boat because there is a bridge now, to Skye.
Dunvegan is the castle (1549 or so) that is the stronghold of the MacLeods, and where Samuel Johnson visited in the 1770's. See
http://www.dunvegancastle.com/
We were told that the castle used to be the staging point for kidnapping local people and taking them to the Caribbean as slaves. There are cells and underground passages leading to the water, where the rowboats would wait to be loaded.
That is why there are so many scottish last names for people on the islands there. True? That slave trafficking was stopped at about the same time that the Crown stopped other slave trafficking.
While on Skye, do look up the grave of Flora MacDonald, who helped Bonnie Prince Charlie escape - he fled in the disguise of her lady in waiting. Someone had left a fresh bouquet there. More on Flora MacDonald at http://www.tartans.com/articles/famscots/floramacdonald.html
It really doesn't matter what you head for out of the guidebooks, you see most everything on the way anyway.
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