When I was in the Scottish Highlands last week I realised the importance of bridges to this area. Ferries are affected by weather, breakdowns, restricted timetables and can be full in busy periods. A bridge offers a much simpler means of making a short crossing over a body of water.

A bridge was finally built from the mainland to the island of Skye in 1995. The tolls for the bridge were high, around £9 for a return trip, there was a lot of protest and civil disobedience until the tolls were finally abolished in 2004. The islanders compared the tolls they paid to the tolls over the much longer Forth and Tay road bridges which only charged 80p return.

I’d never seen the Kylesku Bridge before but I thought that it was very elegant and on reading up on my return I noticed that it has been called one of the most beautiful bridges in the world and won several awards after it opened in 1984. There are parking places where you can have a picnic and/or walk across the bridge at both sides of the bridge.