Decorative Plastering on the Isle of Skye: The Story Behind Skye Surface Design. Part 2
The Journey to Skye
In January 2023, I received a message from a friend in the industry, Josh from Valkyrie Venetian, who is based on the east coast of Scotland.
He asked if I fancied making the nine hour drive from Leeds to Skye to help him on a job.
I answered instantly:
"Yes please mate."
Scotland had always been somewhere I wanted to visit. I’d always loved nature, hiking and being outdoors, and had spent many days exploring the Yorkshire Dales, the Peak District and the Lake District. What a treat it would be to go to Scotland for work.
I’d heard of the Isle of Skye, but I’d never seen a picture of it. I couldn’t have pointed it out on a map. Two weeks later, van packed and Broadford in the sat nav, I headed north.
The scenery on the way up was like driving through Middle-earth. Glencoe. Loch Lomond. The Trossachs. I couldn’t believe it.
Why hadn’t I been here before?
Towards the end of the journey, I crossed the Skye Bridge, not knowing how much crossing that bridge was about to change my life.
I arrived to a clear, starry night. A bright moon lit up a light frost on the ground, with the peaks of Skye dusted in snow.
Josh and I spent the next week crafting a black and bronze Venetian plaster finish in a client’s living room.
Black and bronze, textured venetian plaster finish. Featuring a Liquid Metal compass.
Broadford, Isle of Skye, December 2022
And every day I spent on the island, I fell a little more in love with the place.
Cleaning my trowel, enjoying the view.
Broadford, Isle of Skye. December 2022
When the job came to an end, I was genuinely gutted to leave.
I didn’t know then that Josh would ask me to come back the following week.
And then again.
And again.
Over the next few months, I travelled back and forth between Leeds, Skye and the east coast of Scotland, helping on various jobs while quietly trying to work out how I could make a permanent move to the island.
I couldn’t get it out of my head.
The windswept peninsulas. The Jurassic landscape. The raw beauty of the island.
It was under my skin.
There is a poem from the beginning of an old book about Skye called The Misty Isle of Skye, written over a hundred years ago. It describes something I think a lot of people who have spent time here will understand.
Exiled from Skye
The sun shines on the ocean,
And the heavens are blue and high,
But the clouds hang grey and lowering
O'er the misty Isle of Skye.
I hear the blue-bird singing,
And the starling's mellow cry,
But I love the peewit's screaming
In the distant Isle of Skye.
The trees are grand and lofty,
And the grass grows sweet and high,
But I long to see the heather
In the purple Isle of Skye.
The streams are broad and stately,
And the meadows fertile lie,
But I hear the streamlets leaping
Down the rocky glens of Skye.
There's a singing in the cornfields
As the breeze goes whispering by,
But I love the bracken's rustle
On the lonely hills of Skye.
And I'd rather hear the music,
When my time may come to die,
Of the wind among the corries
In the far-off Isle of Skye.
M. J. M.
Making Skye Home.
In April 2024, the stars aligned and I finally made the move.
I was living and working on the Isle of Skye, based in the small village of Uig.
Living there was everything I’d imagined it would be. The nature, the landscape, the beauty of waking up there every day.
My work was changing too. The finishes I was producing were slowly leaning more towards natural materials and textures. Lime. Clay. Mineral finishes. Materials that felt right for the buildings I was working in and, somehow, right for the island itself.
Clay works Demi-Rustic.
Brothers Point, Isle of Skye, November 2023
Life was also changing personally. I met my partner while staying on Skye for work. She became a huge part of my life, and naturally, the decisions I was making about where I wanted to live and what I wanted the future to look like became decisions we would eventually have to make together.
But unfortunately, I knew living on Skye was borrowed time.
Skye is an incredibly difficult place to find somewhere to rent, and at that point, buying a house wasn’t an option. The accommodation I was living in was tied to my partner’s job. She’s Australian, and eventually we knew we’d have to make some difficult decisions about where life would take us next.
She had to return home.
And I was going with her.
Leaving Home
In December 2025, we left Skye with the plan that we’d return in a couple of years.
We both left with heavy hearts.
Australia is a beautiful country, and there are plenty of opportunities there. I worked for a rendering company and also picked up microcement work here and there. On paper, we were living in many people’s idea of paradise.
But I was unhappy.
It took leaving Skye to properly understand how much it had become home to me. I missed the wildness. The mountains, the weather, the sea and the feeling of being somewhere that still felt raw and untamed.
I missed home.
And reading that poem again, I understood it in a way I hadn’t before.
The trees might be grander somewhere else. The grass might be greener. The weather might even be better. But sometimes one particular place gets hold of you.
I knew where my home was.
After some long conversations with my partner, and more than a few tears, we agreed that the best plan was for me to return alone and start building a life back on Skye.
Visas are a bit of a bugger when you fall in love with someone from the other side of the world, so the plan is for her to join me once we have the visa situation sorted.
It wasn’t necessarily the easiest decision.
But it was the right one.
Coming Home
And so here we are.
In April 2026, I came home to Skye.
Applying microcement floor system.
Edinabne Isle of Skye, May 2026
With a clear direction, complete ambition and a much better idea of what I want to build.
Skye Surface Design isn’t simply about plastering walls.
It’s about creating surfaces that belong in the spaces they’re part of.
It’s about using natural materials, traditional techniques and modern systems to create something personal.
Something that works with the architecture.
Something that changes with the light.
Something that feels like it belongs there.
And ultimately, something that hopefully reflects a little bit of the landscape that surrounds us.
Life’s a journey, personal and work, we are always learning and growing. There’s still plenty more to learn, plenty more materials to experiment with and plenty of ideas for where I want to take Skye Surface Design.
But for now, I’m just happy to be home.