Torrin
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Torrin (Na Torran in Scots Gaelic) is a small village which is located between Broadford (An t-Àth Leathann) and Elgol (Ealaghol) the Strathaird Peninsula on the Isle of Skye. The village although very small boasts good views of Blaven and Loch Slapin. It has several houses spread out all over there is a mixture of Victorian white-washed cottages and modern flat pack houses. Torrin also has an old school now used as an outdoor centre by youth work organisations.
The Skye Marble Railway used to run near Torrin to get to its destination of the nearby village of Kilbride (Cille Bhrìghde). The Railway was a narrow gauge line running from Broadford to Elgol, not for passengers but for transporting the Skye Marble. The Railway closed in the early 1900s, however the track bed remains as a public footpath, there are also quite a few old railway remains to be seen. Skye Marble stills operates now transported by lorries.
A little out of the village toward Broadford can be seen the stark remains of the parish church of Strathaird. The church was replaced by a new one in Broadford, in the Victorian era. Since then the small Torrin church has fallen into ruin, today only the shell of the building is standing.
In 2006 (Wildgoose and Birch, 2006) it was announced that the entrance to the Underworld had been discovered on the High Pasture Cave Excavations, near Torrin. A natural shaft of some 6 metres deep was discovered which led into a cave, both of which appeared to have been used between 1200 BC and 200 BC (Mid Bronze Age to Late Iron Age). After this date the shaft was deliberately backfilled with structured deposits, suggesting some sort of propitiation ritual comparable to some of the mysterious underground structures at Mine Howe on Orkney.
[edit] References
Wildgoose, M, and Birch, S. 2006. High Pasture Cave: Entrance to the Underworld?. Current Archaeology 205: 6
