Sleat (/ˈsleɪt/SLATE) is a peninsula andcivil parish on the island ofSkye in theHighland council area ofScotland, known as "the garden of Skye". It is the home of the clanMacDonald of Sleat. The name comes from theScottish GaelicSlèite, which in turn comes fromOld Norsesléttr (smooth, even),[1] which well describes Sleat when considered in the surrounding context of the mainland, Skye andRùm mountains that dominate the horizon all about Sleat.
The peninsula extends from an isthmus between the heads of Loch Eishort and Loch na Dal for 13 miles (21 km) southwest to Point of Sleat at the southern tip of Skye. It is bounded on the northwest by Loch Eishort and on the southeast by theSound of Sleat. Most of Sleat, unlike most of Skye, is fairly fertile, and though there are hills, most do not reach a great height.
Sleat is a traditional parish that has several communities and two major landowners (the Clan Donald Lands Trust and Eilean Iarmain Estate). Most of the population lives on the southern side of the peninsula. The main settlements along the Sound of Sleat are, from north east to south west,Isleornsay,Teangue,Ferindonald,Kilmore,Armadale,Ardvasar andAird of Sleat. On the northwest side areTokavaig andTarskavaig.
Sleat Community Trust (Scottish Gaelic:Urras Coimhearsnachd Shlèite), the localdevelopment trust, has purchased the Skye Ferry Filling Station at Armadale and in common with many communities is investigating the options for renewable energy production. It also owns Sleat Renewables Ltd., a timber production company.[2][3] In October 2007 the Trust hosted theHighlands and Islands Community Energy Company annual conference.[4]
TheA851 road links Armadale to the rest of Skye. In the early 2000s the final section of a new double-track road through Sleat from Armadale Ferry toBroadford was finished. After later substantial upgrades by June 2019 it became aS2 road throughout. Most teenage school-children in Sleat travel along the A851 to attendPortree High School, where there is a hostel for those who live particularly far away.
Minor roads connect the two coasts of Sleat, and a minor road also extends beyond Armadale to Aird of Sleat. Beyond Aird a track leads 3.5 kilometres (2.2 mi) to thePoint of Sleat Lighthouse.
ACaledonian MacBrayne car ferry connects Armadale toMallaig on the mainland.
After theTrotternish peninsula, the Sleat peninsula is the second strongest Gaelic-speaking area in Skye. In the 1901 census, 91% of the population was recorded as speaking Gaelic, with 10% recorded as Gaelic monolinguals.[5] In the 2011 census, 39% of the population in Sleat were recorded as speaking Gaelic, with the highest percentage of Gaelic speakers inTarskavaig and Achnacloich (51%), and the lowest inArmadale (27%).[6] The local primary school,Bun-sgoil Shlèite, is a designatedGaelic-medium school. There was some local and national controversy in 2006 about the decision to change the status of the school from an English school with a Gaelic medium unit to a Gaelic school[7] but in the end theHighland Council opted for a compromise solution, designating the school as an all-Gaelic school but with an English-medium unit.[8] Sleat is home to Scotland's only Gaelic-medium college,Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, which provides university-level education in a number of subjects in Gaelic, and is the largest employer in the area. The Gaelic feature-length film,Seachd: The Inaccessible Pinnacle, was largely filmed in Sleat and produced byChristopher Young, a Sleat resident and partial Gaelic speaker.
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57°06′37″N5°55′56″W / 57.11016°N 5.93223°W /57.11016; -5.93223
