Why visit Sutherland?

Because it is the wildest, emptiest and most dramatic county in mainland Britain. In Scotland's far north-west, Sutherland has the sculpted peaks of Assynt, some of the oldest rock on earth, white-sand beaches to rival the tropics, and the most spectacular stretches of the North Coast 500 — all with barely a town and famously more deer than people. It is a place for mountains, remote beaches, wildlife and deep quiet, steeped in the bittersweet history of the Highland Clearances. For raw, uncrowded Highland scenery, nowhere does it better.

Is Sutherland good for the North Coast 500?

Yes — it is the heart of it. Sutherland supplies many of the NC500's most famous miles, from the mountain scenery of Assynt and the beaches of the west coast to wild Cape Wrath and Durness on the north, and the gentler towns of Dornoch and Golspie on the east. Most people drive the full 516-mile loop over five to seven days, but Sutherland alone justifies a slower trip; the single-track roads are not to be hurried, and the county is a fine place to base yourself for several days rather than just passing through.

What is Sutherland known for?

Its wilderness above all — vast, empty, mountainous and beautiful. Sutherland is known for the dramatic peaks of Assynt (Suilven, Stac Pollaidh, Quinag), the remote far-northern coast around Cape Wrath and Durness, white-sand beaches, and golden eagles and red deer. It is also known for Dornoch and its championship golf links, Dunrobin Castle, whisky distilleries like Clynelish, and, more soberingly, as one of the areas worst affected by the nineteenth-century Highland Clearances, whose emptied glens still shape the landscape.

How long do you need in Sutherland?

To do it justice, three to five days at least. You could pass through in a day on the NC500, but Sutherland is large and the single-track roads are slow, so it pays to linger — a couple of days on the spectacular west coast around Assynt and Lochinver, time on the north coast towards Durness and Cape Wrath, and a stop on the gentler east around Dornoch. Basing yourself in one spot and exploring outward beats trying to cover it all; this is country made for slowing down.

Boutique Hotels in Sutherland, Scotland

Two coasts, ancient rock and a road between them

Most visitors meet Sutherland through the North Coast 500, the touring route that loops the northern Highlands, and the county supplies its most dramatic miles. The west is the showstopper: the lunar peaks of Assynt — Suilven, Stac Pollaidh, Quinag — rising in isolation from the moor, and the North West Highlands Geopark, where some of the oldest rock on earth meets the sea. Lochinver and Kylesku make good bases, the latter famed for the seafood at its old ferry inn, and white-sand bays like Achmelvich and Clachtoll lie just off the road.

The north coast is wilder still, running out to Durness, the Smoo Cave and remote Cape Wrath, the very corner of mainland Britain, by way of Balnakeil and some of the emptiest beaches in the country. The gentler east coast, along the Dornoch Firth, is where the towns cluster: handsome Dornoch, with its thirteenth-century cathedral and the championship links of Royal Dornoch, where golf has been played since the seventeenth century; Brora and Golspie; and Dunrobin Castle, the fairy-turreted seat of the Dukes of Sutherland, remodelled by Sir Charles Barry, the architect of the Houses of Parliament. Clynelish and other distilleries repay a detour, and the Lochinver larder is worth the drive for its pies alone.

This is, above all, walking, climbing and wildlife country: Munros like Ben Hope, Britain's most northerly, and Ben Klibreck, golden eagles and red deer, salmon rivers and cold-water lochs, and long-distance trails for those with the legs. It repays patience and a full tank, and it is best not rushed — this is some of the least crowded country in Britain, and the single-track roads set their own gentle pace. For where to stay, the club's choice sits deep inland in a glen of its own: Alladale Wilderness Reserve, a 23,000-acre rewilding estate with exclusive-use catered lodges, where the long work of bringing the forest and its wildlife back is slowly reversing the very emptiness the Clearances left behind.