Kyleakin

   KYLEAKIN, a village, in the parish of Strath, Isle of Skye, county of Inverness, 8½ miles (E.) from Broadford; containing 231 inhabitants. The name is partly a corruption of Haco, the place being called Kyleakin, or Haco's-Kyle, in commemoration of events connected with King Haco's Norwegian expedition in 1263. The extremities of the strait between this part of Skye and the main land are styled Kyle Rhea, or the King's Kyle; and here is a ferry about a third of a mile in breadth. Lord Macdonald intended to erect a sea-port town at this place; in 1811 the plans were prepared, and on the 14th of September the foundation stone was laid with great pomp and ceremony; but the design was a failure, as the houses to be erected, of which a few compose the present village, were on too expensive a scale for the resources of the people generally, and no person of wealth or enterprise could be found to settle on the spot. It is now merely a fishing-village. There is a good line of road from the Sconcer road to Kyleakin, and thence through the district of Lochalsh to Strome Ferry, whereby the Lochcarron road is made to form a more convenient means of communication between Skye and the north-east coast of Scotland.