298,000 BC: Skye becomes an island.
9,000 BC: Last glacial floes recede.
6500 BC: Skye’s earliest known inhabitants Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age).
3000 BC: Neolithic (New Stone Age).
2200 BC: Bronze Age.
1159 BC: Volcanic eruption in Iceland disrupts Bronze Age agricultural system.
700 BC: Iron Age, the origins of today’s agriculture.
250+: Pictish period.
550+: Christianity.
581: Death of Irish monk Baedun whose followers were on Skye.
585: Saint Columba visits Skye.
597: Saint Columba dies.
795: First recorded Viking raid on Skye (Annals of Ulster).
800: Skye reportedly devasted by Viking raids.
ca875: Vikings begin to settle.
1014: Skye and Hebrides seized from Norse by Malcolm II.
1140: Uprising against Olav the Red.
1146: Somerled dies.
1262: Earl of Ross raids Skye, burning property and killing the inhabitants.
1263: Battle of Largs. King Haakon of Norway’s fleet anchors off Kyleakin.
1266: Treaty of Perth. Norse formally cede Western Isles to Lords of the Isles.
1266: Dun Sgathaich castle to the MacLeods.
1280: Norman, second lord of the MacLeods, assumes power.
1303: First recorded use of spectacles.
1309: Paper first used in England.
1342: Crown grants MacLeods land at Glenelg.
1346: Likely first use of gunpowder in Europe - Battle of Crecy.
1360: Earliest mention of Caisteal Maol, (Haakon’s Fort) Kyleakin.
1395: Second Lord of the Isles Donald of Harlaw invades Skye. Repulsed by Macleods.

Courtesy of Geoff Holman