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The King's Arms Hotel originally comprised the Kyleakin Hotel, built by J. Gillespie Graham around 1812 - 20, and a shooting lodge. Around 1898 the shooting lodge was converted into an hotel and both were combined in 1900 to become the King's Arms. At that time it was tenanted by Mr and Mrs Donald MacInnes, and remained the only licensed premises in the village until the outbreak of World War ll. Some of the well known guests to have stayed at the hotel include Thomas Carlyle, H.M. Stanley the explorer, and Sir Henry Wood the famous conductor.

Donald Skinner, one of the hotel proprietors, ran the first bus tours to various parts of Skye. Before there was a telephone service to Skye, he devised a system to find out how many mainland visitors would be joining the tours each day. A colleague in Kyle would write the number on a blackboard, and Mr Skinner used a telescope from the front of the hotel to view the board and book the appropriate number of seats.

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