Published in Scotland Magazine Issue 16 on 15/9/2004.

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Seeing the sights in Sutherland

Sally Toms reports on the isolation, history, and variety of this unique Scottish landscape

When you visit this corner of Scotland, you immediately get the feeling that you’ve stumbled upon a long kept secret. This may well be the most beautiful and yet least visited area in Scotland. Why is this?

One reason may be that it is difficult to reach.

Sutherland was the ‘southern land’ of the Vikings but is one of Scotland’s most northerly counties. It has no airport and is hours from Wick and Inverness. It is the only region in Scotland without a town and has the lowest population density in western Europe.

And, being so far north, it does not attract the tourist ‘through trade’ like some of Scotland’s more southern counties.

This is a place that is genuinely off the beaten track. Most villages have populations of only 100 or so. There is no industry. The number of A-roads can be counted on one hand and there are few cars. There are no swanky hotels or chain restaurants, either. This is definitely the place to go to get away from it all.

The first thing that strikes you about Sutherland is the sheer diversity in its landscape, which can be divided into three main areas: the coastal regions; the inland glens and heather covered moorland; and the flow country, a marshy peatland that is the oldest and largest single ecosystem in Britain.

Uniquely, this county has three coastlines – on the north, east and west. There you will find sheer cliff faces and rock stacks, mile after mile of empty white sand beaches and bottle-green seas.

Around the coast, too, are the majori.....

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By Sally Toms

Section : Regional Focus

Page number : 35