Soay, Skye Elgol. The island is part of the Cuillin Hills National Scenic Area, one of 40 in Scotland. The name derives from Old Norse "Sauða-ey" meaning "Sheep Island". Camas nan Gall (G: "Bay of Foreigners") is probably named after the Norse invaders, after whom the Hebrides ("Na h-Innse Gall") are also named. The population peaked at 158 in 1851, following eviction of crofters from Skye in the Highland Clearances. In 1946, author Gavin Maxwell bought the island and established a factory to process shark oil from basking sharks. The enterprise was unsuccessful, lasting just three years. Maxwell wrote about it in
In the Faëry Hills second-hand language" at some points, derivative of Wagner and Debussy, although "there is still a great deal which is wholly individual". "The Musical Times" praised "a mystic glamour that could not fail to be felt by the listener" although the coherence of the piece "was not instantly discernible". The work has, at 2015, been recorded three times for CD, by the Ulster Orchestra conducted by Bryden Thomson (1985), the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and David Lloyd-Jones (1997), and the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Vernon Handley (2006). In the Faëry Hills In the Faëry Hills, to which the composer gave the