Kyle of Lochalsh

Harbour seafood and the Skye crossing

At the harbour, the Fisherman's Kitchen sells fish and shellfish landed by local boats, with a few tables outside that look straight across the water to Skye. The counter runs to haddock wraps, sizzling scallops, filled rolls, salad boxes, and fish and chips with homemade tartare sauce. Margaret's Cullen skink is the thing to order: it took the World Champion title in 2020, along with the award for the version made with a twist. The deli alongside carries brownies, fudge, oatcakes, roasted coffee and hot-smoked salmon, so you can eat by the boats and take the rest of dinner home.

This is the mainland end of the Skye Bridge, standing on the shore of Loch Alsh where the water narrows to a crossing. The bridge transformed access to Skye: it opened in 1995 to replace a hard-pressed ferry, and its tolls were removed in 2004. Traffic to Skye rose by nearly half in the first toll-free year. The old ticket office, closed when tolls were abolished, was bought by the Kyle & Lochalsh Community Trust in 2019 and turned into its office and an activity space.

Coffee, cafés and bar meals

For coffee, the Lighthouse Coffee sits at the Lighthouse Centre on Station Road. It started in the 2021 lockdown, works with the local charity Living Hope Skye & Lochalsh, and bakes its pastries on the premises. The house blend is Caora Coffee, roasted at the foot of the Cuillin, and the milkshakes are made with Scottish ice cream. Hector's Bothy, a café-bar in the centre of the village, does an evening menu. At the Kyle Hotel on Main Street, the Norwest Bar keeps a pool table, sport on a big screen and bar meals, while the hotel restaurant leans on Scottish cooking and locally sourced seafood and produce.

The Plock circuit and community parkland

The walk to do is the Plock of Kyle, a circuit of about two and a half kilometres that takes an hour or so and climbs only around fifty-five metres. The signed start is a short way west of the centre, and the path runs through birch woodland and wildflower meadow to a rocky shore, with detours down to Old Moorings Bay and Fisherman's Bay and open views of the bridge and the hamlet of Badicaul. The Plock was a golf course until the land was compulsorily purchased for the A87 and the bridge; volunteers later took over the paths, drainage and habitat, and set about removing the invasive rhododendron. It is now community parkland, with a tree trail, benches along the water, a community garden, and days set aside in the year for an open day and a scything festival. A sign asks you to keep the car-park gate shut, because it stops otters wandering out onto the A87.

Railway terminus and pier

The station is the village's own, and the end of the line: the run in from Inverness takes about two hours and forty minutes along the coast, and there are five free parking spaces and ten cycle stands when you arrive. It opened in 1897 for the Highland Railway, engineered by Murdoch Paterson, and its long timber buildings sit partly out on the pier. The pier still has its cattle creep, the last of four ramps that once let cattle, horses and sheep be walked off the steamers at any state of the tide and loaded straight onto the trains. Buses run on from here to Skye, and Plockton, a few minutes up the line, is worth the stop for its bay.

Harbour benches and water views

Back at the harbour, the benches look out over the water. You can sit with a box of chips and watch the boats, the bridge above them and Skye across the water.