But it was a little too late. The 1991 census confirmed what many had suspected, that the language was on a ventilator gasping for breath. Between 1981 and 1991 Gaelic went from 80,000 to 65,000 speakers.

The brutal truth was that with so few speakers, Gaelic appeared to be in terminal decline. At the most recent census, in 2001, the number of Scots who said they speak Gaelic was 58,650. These days there are said to be more Urdu speakers in Scotland.

It is against this backdrop that the latest chapter in the sad Gaelic saga is being enacted. Its focus is a primary school at Sleat, in the south-west of Skye, one of the most rugged and seductive parts of Britain.

The school has 82 pupils who can choose to be educated in Gaelic or English. Forty-nine prefer Gaelic; 33 English. Now parents whose children are taught in Gaelic want the school to be monolingual and have put forward a proposal to that effect to Highland council, which will decide later this year. If it decides that Sleat’s school will be exclusively for Gaelic students, those want to be taught in English will have to make an 80-kilometre daily round trip to another school on the island.

Read More Here