further 1789 ha being marine (i.e. below low tide level, and covering the seas to the east of the peninsula). The entire length of the Trotternish landslip is protected as a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) under the Natura 2000 programme, and classified as a Category IV protected area by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. History A Mesolithic hunter-gatherer site dating to the 7th millennium BC at in Staffin is one of the oldest archaeological sites in Scotland. The site continued to be used over many millennia with human bones radiocarbon-dated to the Neolithic (dated to around 3500BC) and Bronze Age (dated to between 2560 and 2150 BC) periods and a copper-alloy pin from the Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age being found, as well as more modern 19th-20th century materials. Its Mesolithic occupation is probably linked to that of the rock shelter at Sand, Applecross, on the mainland coast of Wester Ross where tools made of a mudstone from have been found. Surveys of the area between the two shores of the Inner Sound and Sound of Raasay have revealed 33 sites with potentially Mesolithic deposits. The ruined Duntulm Castle stands on a promontory at the northern end of the peninsula, near the hamlet of Duntulm. During the 17th century it was the seat of the chiefs of Clan MacDonald of Sleat, and is a scheduled monument. The castle is believed to stand on the site of a prehistoric broch or dun known as Dun David, or Dun Dhaibhidh, although no archaeological evidence has been found for this predecessor. The castle was built in the 14th and 15th centuries, when the area was subject to feuds between the rival MacLeod and Macdonald clans, and was abandoned around 1732, when Sir Alexander MacDonald built a new residence, Monkstadt House, to the south. Between 1750 and 1772, Flodigarry, north of Staffin, was the home of Flora MacDonald, the Jacobite made famous by her part in Charles Edward Stuart's escape after his defeat at Culloden. She later moved to Kingsburgh on the southwestern coast of Trotternish, and it was here that Boswell and Johnson met her during their tour of the Western Isles in 1773. Johnson, who held Jacobite views when younger, commented that she was a woman of "soft features, gentle manners, and elegant presence". Gaelic In terms of number of speakers, Trotternish is the strongest Gaelic-speaking area of Skye.