Isle of Skye

Skye Bridge

The road bridge from Kyle of Lochalsh to Skye, opened in 1995 and free to cross since 2004.

Welcome

For most visitors the Skye Bridge is the way onto the island: a long, high concrete curve over the narrows of Kyle Akin, from Kyle of Lochalsh on the mainland to Kyleakin on Skye, touching down on the little island of Eilean Bàn halfway.

Before 1995 the crossing was by ferry, and as visitors grew in number the ferries strained under the summer traffic.

Today it takes a minute or two to drive over, and nothing to pay, but its story is a stormy one: the tolls charged when it opened brought years of protest before they were finally lifted. Walk or cycle across on a calm day for the view up and down the water, with the old Stevenson lighthouse on Eilean Bàn below you. Then look for the ruin of Caisteal Maol on its rock above Kyleakin, just along the shore.

Before you go

The bridge is free and open day and night, to cars, bikes and people on foot.

Crossing: Free, 24 hours a day, by car, bike or on foot.
Eilean Bàn: The island under the bridge can be visited on a tour, booked ahead with the Eilean Bàn Trust.

Did you know

Schoolchildren at the ribbon, 1995.

The bridge opened at 11am on 16 October 1995. The Secretary of State for Scotland, Michael Forsyth, opened it, with local schoolchildren helping to cut the ribbon, and the ferries stopped.

The Skye Bridge sweeps across the water past a small lighthouse, a shingle beach in the foreground.

Did you know

£11.40 to cross and back.

Tolls began at midnight: up to £5.20 each way for a car, £11.40 for a return, when the Forth Road Bridge cost 40p. Protesters called it the most expensive road in Europe.

The Skye Bridge stretches across the water past a lighthouse, a sailboat anchored below on the Isle of Skye.

Did you know

Sheep, pennies and a pipe band.

Protesters drove flocks of sheep across and paid the toll in pennies, and a pipe band led cars over without paying. In the end 130 people were convicted, and one man spent 11 days in prison.

The Skye Bridge spans the strait beyond Kyleakin's harbour and white houses.

Did you know

Bought back for £27 million.

On 21 December 2004 the Scottish Government bought the bridge from its American owners for £27 million and ended the tolls. By then they had taken £33.3 million.

The Skye Bridge curves over calm water past a lighthouse on a rocky point.

Did you know

Gavin Maxwell's island.

The bridge crosses Eilean Bàn, the White Island, once the home of Gavin Maxwell, the naturalist who wrote Ring of Bright Water. His home there is now a museum.

Did you know

A 250-metre span.

The main bridge crosses Kyle Akin in three continuous spans, two of 125 metres either side of a central span of 250 metres, built of post-tensioned concrete between 1992 and 1995.

A bench sits on a grassy shore looking out to the Skye Bridge and a moored sailboat.

Did you know

First planned in 1938.

A bridge to Skye was first proposed in 1938, and dropped when the Second World War broke out. It came up again in the 1960s, when the ferries were struggling with the traffic.

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