Isle of Skye has many attractions for the discerning visitor, all interests are catered for here. Hillwalking, Climbing, Photography, Fishing, Birdwatching (the feathered variety), Sailing, Diving, Paintball, Clay pigeon Shooting, Boat Trips to mention but a few. History is big here with clan battles and castles. Old history remembers the young pretender to the throne Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) who spent quite some time on Skye, also one of his helpers Flora Macdonald who sheltered him from certain death whilst being persued by the Redcoats. The Heavy Tolls on the Skye Bridge were fought against for many years with 500 + protestors. Some protestors went to jail in protest whilst refusing to pay the toll. Eventually after many protests justice prevailed for the common man and the bridge was free to cross not without long campaigns, hardship and personal financial cost. The Tolls were a Government ploy to tax us to the hilt via a pfi (private finance initiative)scam involving the Bank of America and other people in high places. Few of us on the very first protest were aware that it was a criminal offence to refuse to pay the toll, so yes we acted like criminals on more than a few occasions. I was hauled to court in Dingwall for driving through both barriers with a transit van and later wrecking the barriers by manually lifting them by hand, I was charged with malicious damage and had to pay a hefty fine. Shortly after we won our case for "NO TOLLS" all the tolls came off every bridge in Scotland due to an old Scottish ruling from historic legal papers. The meek shall inherit the earth over-ruled the love of money so how does the saying go? "stick that in your pipe and smoke it"
