Sutherland occupies the northwestern corner of mainland Scotland, north of the Dornoch Firth and west of the North Sea coast as it curves toward the top of the British landmass.

The county’s name comes from the Norse for “southern land” — named by the Norse settlers for whom it was south, since they came from farther north — and it has an archaeological record that stretches from the Mesolithic period through the historic era without interruption.

The landscape is dramatic in the particular way that Atlantic-facing northern coasts tend to be.

The rock is ancient — Torridonian sandstone and Lewisian gneiss, some of the oldest exposed geology in Britain — and the soil that has developed over it is thin and often waterlogged.

The vegetation is dominated by heather and peat bog, with pockets of woodland in sheltered valleys.