There is a particular silence on the A836 above Altnaharra, and this stretch of it is the best place to notice it. The road here is single track with passing places, running north from Lairg toward the Kyle of Tongue, with Loch Loyal laid out beside it and the four-peaked ridge of Ben Loyal standing over the water. Hope is the other half of the name, Ben Hope, the northernmost Munro, which you will have glimpsed already as a long flat-topped wall to the north-west.
The name A' Mhòine means the moss or the peat bog, and that tells you most of what you need about the ground. This is northern Sutherland at its barest: blanket bog, lochans, grey granite, and a skyline with hardly a building in it. Ben Loyal is sometimes called the Queen of Scottish mountains because of its sharp, elegant profile, and it earns the title best in low evening light. Golden eagles and red deer are common enough here that locals do not remark on them. Midges, by contrast, get remarked on constantly between June and September, so keep your visor down when you stop.
The people are the quieter part of the story. The glens to the east, Strathnaver especially, were cleared of their tenants in the early nineteenth century to make way for sheep, and the ruins of the old townships are still there in the heather, with signposted trails. Further on, the village of Tongue has Castle Varrich on its small hill above the water, a ruined medieval tower once held by the Clan Mackay, and the causeway across the Kyle was only opened in the early 1970s, replacing a long detour round the head of the inlet.
Fuel is the thing to plan for. There is nothing up here but moorland, and the sensible rule is to leave Lairg with a full tank, or to treat Thurso on the north coast as the next sure thing in the other direction. Passing places are for passing, and also for letting the camper vans behind you go by; a wave helps. The surface is generally decent but narrow, and in rain or the first frosts of October you will want to leave yourself more room than the map suggests.