‘I’ve met wise women and mermen who come from the ocean and little old ladies in rain ponchos on coaches, I’ve met grumpy old unwavering parish councillors and tourists who shout at sheep…”

It is 30 years since the Skye Bridge was opened in 1995 and Skye Bridge Studios is recreating our very first production Tales of The Last Ferryman by Joe Plumb which was promenaded around Kyleakin in 2021.  Adapted for in-studio performances, the piece has Morgan Mackinnon recounting the night the Bridge opened.

“Unrest was stirring across the Isle, I could sense something big was about to happen…”

Now, in 2026 Morgan scrapes a living telling stories to tourists including tales of myths and legends of Vikings & giants; he also interweaves his own story leaving Wales to search out the Scottish ancestry of his father. He arrived in 1980, worked on the ferries until they stopped, but never left.

‘Some people come here and stay a few days, others stay for a lifetime….there’s one question they ask any incomer moving up here… “what are you running away from?”

Llion Williams who is known for Mystery Files (2010), Itopia (2022) and Hidden (2018), The Stickmaker Tales (National Theatre Wales 2017/2019) and I am Lloyd George 2024/25 is recreating the role he developed with us four years ago.

So, for anyone interested in the way Island communities have depended upon a fragile transport infrastructure and wonder about the value/impact of a land link then this play set in the area of the Skye crossing will offer some significant insight. There are strong themes around migration and the search for a better life which have resonance in many other outlying places in Scotland today.