Helmsdale is at the northern border where Sutherland meets Caithness and less than an hour from John O Groats and the Pentland Firth.
This small town is famous for three things – salmon fishing, the Clearances and the Mirage restaurant which is said to serve the best fish and chips in the north.
There’s also a modern harbour which attracts a lot of sailors as they make their way around the coast.
As we drive into the town from the south there’s the memorial park on the left, The restaurant there is manned by two ladies, one from England and the other from the USA. They love living in Helmsdale they say.
In the town there’s the harbour, a hotel, the Mirage and Timespan – the first of the heritage centers to be built in this part of the world. I remember taking our kids there 20 years ago and learning about the Highland Clearances.
The road west follows the Helmsdale river up to Mackay Country, the high barren wilderness that’s Sutherland’s hinterland. And from there to Strathnaver.
We stopped beside the river to film somebody fly fishing for salmon. Apparently he’d caught, and lost, two salmon that morning – both of them escaping the hook before the keep net could be brought into action.
He was happy to be filmed but slightly embarrassed. Apparently his casting of the line and handling of the rod weren’t up to the highest standards. You fishermen would know, but not me. As we drove west we came across numerous small groups in 4X4s with rods on the roofs. Didn’t see any fish though.
But before we went west we’d visited Badbea – the clearances village on the cliffs just north of town. The final slide in the video shows the view of the town, approaching it from the north.
Helmsdale is a popular place to stay if you’re lucky enough to go fishing for a day, or even deer hunting in the season. It seems to me it could be a nice place to chill out as well. I’m sure they’ll have single malt somewhere 
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