The coast, where the land finally runs out into the sea, is composed of cliffs and stacks and beaches of white shell sand that look subtropical on the rare occasions when the sun falls on them directly.

People have been living in this landscape for a very long time.

The number and density of prehistoric monuments in Sutherland and the surrounding area is extraordinary given how remote and sparsely populated the region is today.

There are Neolithic and Bronze Age burial cairns, standing stones, stone circles, and the remains of Iron Age settlements in the form of duns — small fortified enclosures — and brochs, the remarkable circular towers that are one of the most distinctive features of Scottish Iron Age architecture.

Loch Borralie itself is a small, relatively sheltered loch not far from the coast.