A village of Wester Ross, Kyle of Lochalsh lies on the shore of Loch Alsh opposite the island of Skye. It maintained a ferry link with Kyleakin on Skye until the opening of the Skye Bridge in 1995 and is the terminus of the scenic West Highland Railway from Inverness which formerly provided an important freight line after it was established in 1897. There was a mail-boat and later a vehicle ferry service operating from here to Stornoway in the Outer Hebrides until 1973, when Caledonian MacBrayne moved their northerly mainland terminal to Ullapool.