Inside Sabhal Mòr Ostaig - Scotland's only Gaelic college

I keep rolling southwards, catching glimpses of a shimmering sea as the road meanders onwards, before coming to a halt at my destination.

Before me, a collection of modern, whitewashed buildings – the sort that you can always tell are something ‘official’ – huddle together near the edge of the coastline, framed by the towering landscape of Knoydart across the water.

Resting beneath a freshly-washed sky and bathed in a rare flash of early-spring sunlight, the whole scene is like a postcard image – but one so perfect you think it must be a painting instead of a photograph. All of this couldn’t actually be real.

But it’s not only real: it’s a real Scottish college.

The main campus of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig

This is Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, Scotland’s only Gaelic-medium further and higher education institution, and the National Centre for Gaelic Language and Culture.

It is quite possible that you’ve never heard of it before, and in most cases, you’re unlikely to have ever visited, although you may have passed by on the road north after a crossing from Mallaig.

The college was founded half a century ago by Sir Iain Noble, a Berlin-born son of a diplomat who started out in merchant banking but became a powerful advocate for the recognition, protection and development of Gaelic language and culture. He was also, as it happens, responsible for the country’s first bilingual road signs.

In 1972, Noble bought 20,000 acres of land on the Isle of Skye, largely located in the south-easterly Sleat peninsula; the following year, housed in an old farm steading that is still in use today, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig was born.

The mission was clear: to revitalise – in a literal sense – Gaelic language and culture, supporting people to become active users and participants while also encouraging the expansion of Gaelic (back) into everyday life. The institution’s current slogan is ‘Thigibh beò sa Ghàidhlig’ (Live life through Gaelic), which seems to perfectly encapsulate the activist founding principles underpinning its work.

Sir Iain Noble, founder of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig

This is not just a college where classes are conducted in the medium of Gaelic – it is a fundamentally Gaelic institution. Almost everything that happens here - teaching, admin, board meetings, passing conversations in the corridors – is in Gaelic.

Walking around the campus, it quickly becomes clear this is unlike any other place I’ve visited in Scotland, and although I do find a bit of English written on some (but not all) of the signs and posters I pass, it is always clear that these are translations for visiting English speakers, just as you might expect in any number of locations across Europe. It doesn’t make me feel unwelcome, but it does remind me my language and culture, though dominant every else in Scotland, are not in charge here – and I find it strangely reassuring.

It’s not just the language that sets this place apart. One of the many unique aspects of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig is An Cùrsa Comais, a flagship innovation that sees beginner and intermediate Gaelic learners experience a full year of linguistic immersion before commencing their (entirely non-English) studies. A version for more advanced speakers, called Gàidhlig is Conaltradh, is also available.

This immersion forms much of the basis of the Gaelic-language education available here, and allows students to complete courses like a DipHE in Gaelic Media, BA (Hons) Gaelic and Education, MSc Material Culture and Gàidhealtachd History, and even a PhD Gaelic and Celtic Studies. Apprenticeships, SVQs and distance-learning certifications are also on offer.

But as is impressive as the range of qualifications may be, one of the most interesting things about this college is actually the way in which short, non-certificated courses are delivered as part of the institution’s core mission. Sabhal Mor Ostaig makes greater use of these courses, which have been actively discouraged elsewhere, than other colleges in the country, something made possible by its independent outcome agreement with the Scottish Government.

Many are completed during the Easter and summer holidays, the latter of which also includes Seachdain Nan Teachlach (Family Learning Week) from 8-12 July. During these periods, full-time students move out and college accommodation is offered alongside classes, allowing even these short-term students to experience a degree of immersion in this extraordinary campus.

An aerial view of Sabhal Mòr Ostaig

This summer, alongside Gaelic classes spanning seven levels, the college is offering short courses such as Small Pipes (with Ross Ainslie), Art in a Gaelic Environment (with Sharon Cooper), and Learning Through Living Culture in Flodigarry (with Alec ‘Valtos’ MacDonald)

Participants come from all over. During the 2024 Easter period, I’m told, a couple of teenagers from Germany travelled by planes, trains and Calmac ferries to spend a week studying Gaelic  - after starting to learn using the Duolingo app.

More than anything else, Sabhal Mòr Ostaig feels purposeful. Founders and principles and national missions all help with that, but in the end it’s really down to the staff. What stands out to me most of all during my visit, above the stunning location and the fascinating history and the genuinely uplifting vision, was the clear sense that those who work here are committed not to just to their students, or even to the existence of the institution, but also to that purpose. There is a point to this place that goes beyond the regular understanding of education, and the people I speak to seem proud to be at the very heart of that. I think they’re right to be.

The crucial thing to understand is that Sabhal Mòr Ostaig doesn’t exist to preserve Gaelic. It isn’t really about the past, or even the present. In the end, it is here to build a better, and more Gaelic, future – both for the community serves and for the rest of us as well.

It’s about learning, yes – but it’s also about living.

That thinking is symbolised very clearly in what is going on at the back of the campus, where various new homes in different states of completion can be found. At first I assume it is some particularly impressive student accommodation, and then I start to wonder if perhaps it’s just a small housing development that happens to be situated next to the college grounds. Both ideas turns out to be entirely incorrect.

What I’m looking at is called Baile na Cille Bige (Kilbeg Village) which will be the first new village built in the West Highlands for over 100 years. Described to me as a “public/private, community-led project,” it will eventually offer 29 affordable homes, and has involved a significant capital investment from the college.

The new village takes its name from a settlement whose inhabitants were forced out during the Highland Clearances. Since Sabhal Mòr Ostaig opened half a century ago, the population of this area has more than doubled, and now Baile Na Cille Bige represents the next step forward to rebuilding a community that is not just sustainable, but vibrant.

An early view of the Baile na Cille Bige (Kilbeg Village) development

And then, all too soon, it is time to get going: I’ve got a ferry to catch, and a long drive back to Glasgow on the other side of that voyage. An all-day visit feels like it has lasted an hour at best

The slipway for the crossing to Mallaig is just a few minutes down the road, so I’m soon standing on the upper deck of the boat, looking back along the coast as we head over the sea from Skye, and when the college campus reappears as we head out of the bay, shining like a beacon, I promise myself that I’ll be back.