Durness and Sutherland

On the north-western tip of mainland Scotland lies Durness, a thriving crofting community surrounded by magnificent mountains, a rugged coastline and wide unpolluted beaches.

This is Mackay country, and the numerous cairns, brochs and ruined settlements in the area are testament to a long and turbulent history. Norsemen would steer their longships around Cape Wrath on the way to Ireland, and sometimes came ashore in Durness. And it was the Vikings who gave the county of Sutherland its name.

True to their Norse ancestry, the original settlers loved to pass on stories, and there is hardly a hill, loch or bay in the area which does not boast its own ghost. Although we have not so far met any of these spectral residents, we have witnessed the breathtaking Northern Lights, and joined in when villagers stopped work to watch whales playing in the waters beneath the cliffs. Perhaps you will be lucky too…

Visitors will find plenty to do…

• Superb hill and mountain walking
• Salmon, trout and sea fishing.
  An abundance of hill lochs
• Deer stalking
• Magnificent, unpolluted beaches
• Glorious Balnakeil Bay
• A unique craft village, established
  over thirty years ago
• Nine-hole golf links
• Traditional highland fishing port of
  Kinlochbervie nearby
• Cape Wrath lighthouse and
   spectacular Smoo Cave
• Haunted Sandwood Bay
• Welcoming pubs and restaurants