Caisteal Maol stands on a rock above the water at the edge of the village, a broken rectangle of medieval tower that the MacKinnons raised in the fifteenth century. It is roofless and fragmentary now, and the shore approach to it is rocky and can be cut off at high tide, so look at the water before you set out. From the old ferry pier below, the strait is narrow enough that Kyle of Lochalsh feels like the far bank of a river rather than the mainland, and the Skye Bridge arcs across the gap overhead.
The village faces this crossing, and pubs line the front. The King Haakon Bar, with the Castle Moil Restaurant attached, sits at The Pier and looks across the water to the bridge; the kitchen does fish and chips, Cullen skink, fish pie, and a baked potato with shrimp salad, with a vegetarian burger and fries for anyone who has had enough seafood. Saucy Mary's Bar, part of the lodge beside the bridge, runs to pizza, live music and dogs on leads; in summer it usually keeps Isle of Skye Brewery's Skye Black and Skye Red on cask, though the real ale is a warm-months affair. The Kings Arms on King Street, which bills itself as one of Skye's oldest hotels, serves evening meals.
For a curry there is Taste of India, fully licensed, where the kitchen turns out samosas, chicken masala, garlic naan and a chilli-garlic paneer. One diner, Célestine V, called it "an explosion of spice with every bite."
The Nice Cafe and Bookshop is worth knowing about. It is a social enterprise, opened in 2008 and run by Kyleakin Connections to give adults with learning disabilities training and work, and it serves filled rolls, homemade soup and bread, and home baking alongside shelves of second-hand books. It opens on Wednesdays only, so time your visit.
The parish church, built in 1875, is small, whitewashed and lit through lancet windows. It ran on paraffin lamps until electricity reached Kyleakin in 1947, at which point the Women's Guild set about raising the money to heat it.
The best walk starts at the village car park: a circuit of about two and a quarter miles that takes in the war memorial on An Cnap, the ferry pier, the tidal salt marsh at the Obb, and views out to Eilean Bàn. In summer the marsh carries thrift and herons. You can also simply walk across the Skye Bridge — there are footpaths on both sides — to Kyle of Lochalsh, whose railway station and eating places lie about a mile and a half beyond the village trails on this side. The A87 runs past the village, and buses stop here on their way to Broadford, Portree, Fort William and Inverness.
Eilean Bàn, the island beneath the bridge, was the last home of Gavin Maxwell, who wrote Ring of Bright Water; his house is now a museum, and the Stevenson lighthouse of 1857 still stands. The island keeps otters, seals and seabirds, and tours need booking ahead.
The name Kyleakin remembers a Norwegian king, Haakon, who passed through the strait before the Battle of Largs in 1263. The local history society has a village tartan for the place, designed by Neil Montgomery: deep blue for the water, a storm sky, green for the hills, and one scarlet line for a fisherman's blood.