1775: Thomas Crapper invents the WC.
1776: Fort Augustus to Glenelg road abandoned by military.
1777: Rapid expansion of textile industry.
1779: Flora MacDonald returns from America. Her husband, captured in the American Civil War, returned later.
1780: Steel nibbed pen invented.
1782: Rotary steam engine patented.
1783: Hot air balloon invented.
1784: Bad winter. Poor crops and many cattle died.
1785: Estates forfeited by Prince Charles Edward supporters returned to them.
1785: Power loom patented.
1786: First light from coal gas.
1787: Model fishing village built at Stein, Waternish. An ultimately unsuccessful venture.
1789: Alexander Wentworth MacDonald relocates family seat from Monkstadt to Armadale.
1789: Skye defence force raised against potential French invasion.
1790: Flora MacDonald dies at Penduin.
1791: Huge shoals of herring in Loch Duich, south of Lochalsh.
1794: More than 100 fishing boats counted off Isle Ornsay, many from the Baltic.
1795: Start of decline in herring stocks.
1795: Hydraulic press invented.
1796: Smallpox vaccine isolated.
1797: Bernera Barracks, Glenelg, sold to the MacLeod of the MacLeods (by 1830 a poor house).
1798: Lithography invented.
1798: Edward Jenner discovers vaccination; Smallpox mortality greatly reduced.
1798: Population of Skye 14,470.
1799: Road from Kylerhea to Stein surveyed. It routes via Broadford, Sconser, Bracadale and Dunvegan.

Courtesy of Geoff Holman