Kyle of Lochalsh — usually just Kyle — sits at the narrow strait where Loch Alsh meets the sea, facing Kyleakin on Skye across a few hundred metres of water. For about four centuries a ferry crossed here. Since 1995 the Skye Bridge has carried the A87 over to the island a mile or so west of the village, and most traffic now sweeps past without stopping.
That's a little unfair to Kyle, which is a useful place rather than a pretty one. It's the end of the railway from Inverness — the Kyle Line, one of the great scenic train rides in Scotland, running along Loch Carron through Plockton — and the station sits on the old ferry pier with a small museum on the platform. Buses from Glasgow and Inverness stop here on their way to Portree and Uig, and there are shops, a supermarket and fuel before you cross.
The big reason to linger is Eilean Donan Castle, a few miles east along the A87 near Dornie, on its islet where three sea lochs meet. It's one of the most photographed sights in Scotland and among its most visited castles, so come early or late. Boat trips from Kyle's slipway go out on the strait in summer, and the hills of the Balmacara Estate, owned by the National Trust for Scotland, rise behind the village.