Skye blender ("smugglers den by the Sound of Sleat"), based at . These are marketed using predominantly Gaelic-language labels. The blended whisky branded as "Isle of Skye" is produced not on the island but by the Glengoyne Distillery at Killearn north of Glasgow, though the website of the owners, Ian Macleod Distillers Ltd., boasts a "high proportion of Island malts" and contains advertisements for tourist businesses in the island. There is also an established software presence on Skye, with Portree-based Sitekit having expanded in recent years. Crofting is still important, but although there are about 2,000 crofts on Skye only 100
Etymology of Skye word for "winged", which may describe the island's peninsulas that radiate out from a mountainous centre, has also been suggested. In the Norse sagas Skye is called "Skíð", for example in the "Hákonar saga Hákonarsonar", and in a skaldic poem in "Saga Magnús konungs berfœtts" in the "Heimskringla" from c. 1230. According to other authors, it was referred to in Norse as "skuy" "misty isle", "*skýey", or "skuyö" "cloud isle". It is not certain whether the Gaelic poetic name for the island, "Eilean a' Cheò" "isle of the mist" precedes or postdates the Norse name. Some legends also associate the