As a family, a few years ago now, we booked a two week stay at a farmhouse type property on the magnificent Isle of Skye, the large almost foetus shaped landmass just off the west coast of mainland Scotland.
It was a long drive from our home in Yorkshire, some 8 to 9 hours, plus a trip across on one of the many passenger and vehicle ferries that supply and support the many communities who live offshore in that part of the UK.
As usual for a family holiday in Scotland where the weather cannot be relied upon we were well equipped with all sorts of activities from mountain bikes to electric guitar, a stock of DVD's (many holiday lets have a terrible collection) and a number of books.
It was a mighty strange experience to actually sit and read a book, "A Summer in Skye" in the very house in which it had been written back in the 1860's.
I had some inclination that I was close to one of the main settings for the book from Alexander Smiths superb detail on physical landscape. This was mainly through reading a passage whilst sat in the sun room overlooking the sea-loch below and finding a close match between the text and what I could actually see. It was not until a brief conversation, some five days into the stay, with an islander in a gift shop that the true fact emerged.
An impulse bid on-line for this hefty work left me with a copy withdrawn from a Municipal Library stock with hard cover and an ominous message on the inside cover not to return the book to the lending library if there was a contagious illness in the household. Exceptional nowadays this may have been a standard sticky insert for the 1950's library service.
The text of "A Summer in Skye" starts in Edinburgh with highly descriptive scenes of a bustling city and some not very complimentary remarks about the rougher residents of what are now the prime tourist spots. Well worth a read if you are in Edinburgh for any period of time.
The journey across Scotland has some general interest mainly reliance on horse and carriage and frequent stopovers at Inns.
Within the main title of the book I was shocked by the bleak and poverty stricken life of the Skye islanders whose reliance on the produce of land and sea was regularly interrupted by the inevitable fall of rain around seven feet over one extended and persistently wet period (in excess of 200 days continuous).
Alexander Smith was confined to his hosts' house through much of his stay on Skye because of the constant downpour and there are some excellent narratives on the experience of watching the incessant influence of moisture and its power in shaping life on the island.
The book is very broad in its coverage of the history of Skye and a few chapters comment on the many legends and superstitions from a race of giant warriors to witches with stories of local fatalities amongst fishermen and the crofters.
This sort of deep rooted folklore is very believable on a dark and stormy night in a holiday cottage miles from anywhere and with no points of reference or the comfort of street lights or traffic noises.
Any slight rattling of slates or rustling of trees is very foreboding in such a location.
Anyone looking to actively walk in the Cuillin Mountains, which could be seen looming up on the western horizon from the house, would be interested in relevant parts of the book as long as they are not travelling alone as some of the valleys and remote spots are evidently full of lost souls or the dispossessed.
Some of the chapters are a bit tedious and heavy going very much in the style of Fennimore Cooper (who is mentioned) and can be speed-read without spoiling the best bits of the book.
After my two week stay on Skye and faced with the prospect of a long motoring journey home I really enjoyed the description of Alexander Smith's own journey by slow boat which operated like a local bus service carrying boozy passengers, freight and livestock. An epic journey in itself. The man himself was deeply moved by his time on the island and even to modern visitors spending any time on the island this emotional link is forged easily and stays with you for years.
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