Fairy Pools 1 of 3

The introduction to 3 posts:

The Fairy Pools on the Isle of Skye, historically known as Coire na Creiche, combine striking natural beauty with deep Gaelic and clan history. Their name reflects a later romanticized association with fairies rather than documented folklore, while their past includes a brutal 1601 clan battle between the MacLeods and MacDonalds. Today, the pools are valued for their vivid waters, dramatic Black Cuillin setting, and growing popularity as a destination where landscape, history, and cultural storytelling meet. See Fairy Pools – Wikipedia.

Glen Brittle (Gleann Breadail in Scottish Gaelic) is a large glen in the south of the Isle of Skye, in Scotland. It runs south to north, along the River Brittle, which has its mouth at Loch Brittle (a sea loch). The glen is bounded on the east by the main Black Cuillin ridge, the largest mountain range on Skye. The name is probably derived from old Norse Bred Dal (“broad valley”) with the Gaelic glean (“valley”) prefixed later.

Brittle’s tributaries run into the glen, including a stream with waterfalls known as the Fairy Pools. There are two hamlets in the south of the glen – Glenbrittle and Bualintur. In 2024 a lost 17th- or 18th-century farming settlement known as Brunell was discovered. Once home to over 2000 people, it was abandoned in the 19th century due to the amalgamation of small farms.

In the northern woods and fields, red deer can be seen. Rabbits and swallows are mostly in the farmland in the south. Ruddy turnstones, ringed plovers, grey herons, dunlins, curlews, and oystercatchers can be found on the beach.

There are sheep all over the Isle of Skye. I put a few of them in this post. In the next two posts I will show the pools.