INVERNESS Highland councillors will lobby opposition MPs this morning during the Scottish Grand Committee's first visit to the Highland capital as part of their campaign to remove tolls from the Skye Bridge.

They are looking for manifesto commitments, and are themselves preparing a ``detailed and convincing'' case to present to the Government. These things take time.

More immediate are the prospects for Dingwall Sheriff Court on Friday, when the judicial system begins its consideration of the 187 people who have refused to pay the bridge tolls on one or more occasions since the bridge opened on October 16.

While the vast majority of islanders have not followed the example set by the Skye and Kyle Against Tolls (Skat) campaigners, it is clear that there is growing respect for the non-payment campaign waged by the Skat membership, which includes doctors, teachers, businessmen, councillors, the young unemployed and, even a Free Church elder.

As one islander told the Herald at the weekend: ``At the start there was a fear that perhaps some of the wilder elements would take over, but it hasn't happened. They have acted responsibly throughout, despite Government attempts to discredit them. I think it gives us all a lift to know that somebody is fighting these tolls. They have kept the issue in the headlines.''

They certainly have done that. Only a week ago, about 200 protesters, mostly wearing masks, carried, wheeled or rolled 90 casks of Extortion Ale across the bridge. The Isle of Skye Brewery in Uig, started recently by Portree High School teachers Angus MacRuary and Steve Tinney, had produced 200 gallons of the special ``anti-toll beer'' to highlight the community's anger and to support Skat. Supplies have already been delivered to bars in Inverness, Avoch, Aberdeen, Dundee, St Andrews, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dunblane and Johnston.

Beer this time, but it could be sheep next. Nobody seems to mind. Privately the local police and employees of Skye Bridge Ltd will talk of the good relations and humour that have been maintained with the protesters. Many have known each other for a very long time.

Even a senior vice-president of the Bank of America, which has been bankrolling the bridge builder Miller/Dywidag throughout, travelled to Portree along with a director of Miller's to meet the very people who are refusing to pay their tolls. It is all most unusual, and the court case promises the same.

Skat members have refused to pay their tolls, and have been anxious to get to court since October so that they can challenge the legitimacy of the law on which the prosecution rests. They question Skye Bridge Ltd's legal right to gather tolls.

But the other side has been behaving rather strangely as well. Just under two weeks ago, Scottish Office Minister Lord James Douglas Hamilton wrote a letter to one of the leading protesters stating that he thought the non-payment was ``..completely irresponsible. It will gain nothing''.

He concluded the letter: ``In view of the public interest in this matter, I am releasing the text of this letter to the media.''

It is surprising that a Minister of State would wish to pass comment and publish his thoughts on such matters.

Another protester, Andrew McMorrine, principal teacher of art at Portree High School, also felt forced to lodge an offical complaint with Lord Mackay, the Lord Advocate, over comments reportedly made by the procurator-fiscal in Dingwall David Hingston, which stressed that time wasting would not be tolerated and that the cases would be dealt with as speedily as possible.

Mr McMorrine said: ``The authorities clearly believe that, in some way, we are playing at this, but we have been acting out of a sense of principle from the start. This has not been an easy thing to do. The very least we should be able to expect is that our challenge is taken as seriously as any other, and considered without prejudice. That is supposed to be the cornerstone of our judicial system.''

Other letters complaining on the same lines have now been sent to Lord Mackay.

Another man who has had problems arrive in his mail is Portree businessman Dan Corrigall, now known locally Napoleon because of his having suffered internal exile. ``I received a letter from the bridge company saying I would not be allowed passage across the bridge until I paid my dues.''

It takes all sorts, and Skat has taken all sorts. The group's most public faces are those of Skye councillors Gavin Scott-Moncrieff and Drew (Andrew) Millar, who sit on both Skye and Lochalsh District Council and the new Highland Council, in whose corridors a mainland councillor was heard to comment on Drew's recently cropped haircut: ``That man is clearly planning for life after Dingwall.''

If they are the public face, the day-to-day reality of Skat is Gavin's wife Myrna. She is the organisational guts of the campaign, which is based at her home in Flodigarry in the north of Skye, a few yards from where Flora Macdonald started her married life with Alan of Kingsburgh, 72 miles from the bridge.

Gavin and she run a hostel in this beautiful part of Skye, surrounded by the extraordinary geological formations that are the Dunain. A native of Calgary (Alberta not Mull), she has lived in Scotland for 30 years, the last nine in Skye, where she learned Gaelic. Myrna Scott-Moncrieff is naturally generous, but her determination is almost tangible.

She said: ``Despite what most believe, Skat wasn't planned months ahead of the bridge opening. It really wasn't. The Skye Bridge Appeal Group had been working so effectively, embarrassing the Scottish Office, asking questions, being there as a focus for opposition. It was only a few days before the bridge opened that we met in Portree and it all came together.

``In my heart of hearts I never believed they would charge the maximum allowed under the legislation, but a couple of weeks before the opening they published the rates, I think it was on a Friday night. That was the first time we realised they were going to charge the maximum allowed.

``That's when it came home to us, and I think people just thought we have got to do something, we are being singled out, the only community in the UK to suffer in this way. So Skat was formed, no masterplan, no great preparation.

``Some people have said that we are enjoying it all. That's not true. Now it has just taken over our lives.

``Everybody fights in their own way, but I would like to stress the courage shown by so many here over this issue. There are a lot of people who stand to lose a great deal. But what do you do in the face of such injustice?''

Down near Broadford is Kathleen MacRae of the Skye bridge Appeal Group, who has been campaigning now for most of this decade. She pays her tolls very reluctantly. The Skye Bridge Appeal Group has been operating for more than three years now, but Kathleen is quick to pay tribute to Skat.

``The Government is trying to paint them as irresponsible. By that definition, we have been responsible, but they still haven't answered our questions. As responsible citizens we have been asking for the last three years how much this bridge has cost the public purse, but they simply refuse to tell us. The only hope we have is a change of Government so we others can see what is really in the contract.

``We will keep plugging away. We have just written to Iain Robertson, chief executive of Highlands and Islands Enterprise, reminding him of a letter he sent us on January 15, 1992 in which he said: `Do not forget also that, once in place, the argument for dropping or reducing tolls can go.' Well the bridge is in place and we were wondering where Mr Robertson is in the argument on the tolls. We are awaiting his reply.''

Down the road is Kyleakin, the community which was predicted to suffer most from the withdrawal of the ferry. There aren't the queues of cars leading down to the slipway, but the village strangely still has some bustle about it. Community council chairman Billy Reid has been pleasantly susprised.

``The woman next door to me does bed and breakfast and she was as busy after the bridge opened up until Christmas as ever she was at that time of year. Obviously things are different. For a start, 20 people who used to work here don't any more. Some are working away. It will take a couple of years before we really know the full effects.

``The bus service to Kyle is good because people don't have to walk all the way down to the ferry, and you know when it is going to come. The bridge isn't an issue any more, but the tolls most certainly are. Some people say of Skat `Where were these people four years ago?' But that's not an argument. We didn't have the tolls four years ago. The issue of the tolls won't go away.''