Just north of Golspie, on the east coast of Sutherland, a fairytale castle rises above the sea. Dunrobin Castle, seat of the Earls and later Dukes of Sutherland, looks like something from the Loire, all conical turrets and white walls, because in the nineteenth century the architect Charles Barry, who also designed the Houses of Parliament, remodelled it in a French-Scottish style. Its formal gardens step down toward the shore. It is one of the grandest houses in the Highlands, and it is open to visitors in the warmer months.
The castle is also a reminder of the darker side of Highland history. The Sutherland family, especially the first Duke and his wife, the Countess of Sutherland, were behind some of the most notorious of the Highland Clearances in the early nineteenth century, when thousands of tenants were removed from inland glens to make way for sheep and resettled on the coast. On the hill of Ben Bhraggie above Golspie stands a huge statue of the first Duke, visible for miles, and it remains controversial: there have been repeated calls to remove it, and locals are not always fond of it.
The riding on this stretch of the North Coast 500 is easy and pleasant: the A9 runs along the coast between Golspie and Brora with the sea on one side and farmland and rough hills on the other. The road is well surfaced and fairly straight, with long views, but it carries more traffic than the single-track lanes further north and west, including trucks and camper vans. Wind off the North Sea can be strong, and the weather changes quickly, so keep your waterproofs handy. If you want something wilder, the small road inland from Golspie up toward Loch Brora and the empty moors of Sutherland is a lovely detour.
Golspie is a small village of about fourteen hundred people with a shop, cafes and fuel, and Brora, a few miles north, is similar and has a well-known whisky distillery, Clynelish. For the larger towns with everything, you need to go south to Dornoch, Tain or Alness. The beaches along this coast are long and sandy, and seals often bask on the rocks near Dunrobin. In summer the evenings are very long this far north, which gives you plenty of daylight for riding and for a walk on the shore after dinner.