Tongue (Scotland)

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Tongue
Scottish Gaelic Tunga
View over tongue
View over tongue
Coordinates 58 ° 29 ′  N , 4 ° 25 ′  W Coordinates: 58 ° 29 ′  N , 4 ° 25 ′  W
Tongue (Scotland)
Tongue
Tongue
Residents 445
administration
Post town LAIRG
ZIP code section IV27
prefix 01847
Part of the country Scotland
Lieutenancy Area Sutherland
Council area Highland
Civil Parish Tongue
British Parliament Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross
Scottish Parliament Caithness, Sutherland and Ross

Tongue ( Scottish Gaelic Tunga ) is a village in the United Kingdom on the north coast of Scotland in the former county of Sutherland and today's Council Area Highland with around 500 inhabitants.

Geography and location

Tongue is located on the bay of the same name , the Kyle of Tongue , in the far north of the Highlands between Durness (approx. 47 km) in the west, the city of Thurso (approx. 70 km) in the east and Lairg (approx. 62 km) in the south. The place is located at the foot of the 764 m high Ben Loyal and is the closest settlement to the northernmost Munro , the Ben Hope rising to 927 m and the Loch Hope to the west . The parish ( parish ) Tongue also includes the hamlet of Skullomie, 8 km to the north, with a small fishing port, the three - albeit uninhabited - Rabbit Islands in Tongue Bay as well as a few scattered smaller estates or farms.

Transport links

The place has good transport connections for the outer northwest of Scotland . It is located on two roads of the highest British main category (comparable to German federal highways ), the A838 from Lairg via Durness to Tongue and the 208 km long A836 from Tain via Lairg and Tongue to the extreme northeast tip of the British main island to John o 'Groats . However, these main roads in Sutherland , which has been extremely sparsely populated since the Highland Clearances, are only single-lane with occasional stops. The nearest national airport is in Inverness and the northernmost British motorway ( M90 ) ends in Perth, which is more than 300 km south . Like the rest of the north-west of the Highland district, Tongue is not connected to the UK rail network; the nearest train stations are in Thurso and Lairg on the Far North Line, which was completed by 1874 .

Landmarks, tourism and business

Castle Varrich

Not far from the main village is the castle ruins of Castle Varrich , possibly dating back to the Viking Age , which was the ancestral seat of the once powerful MacKay clan in the late Middle Ages and offers a magnificent view of the bay, the town and the surrounding mountains. The Tongue House , built in the 17th century and in which the MacKays resided from then on, is a worthwhile destination with its magnificent garden. The house and park are surrounded by a grove, the Tongue Wood ; a rarity in the northern highlands.

In terms of landscape, the Ben Hope, with its 800 meter high west face, is an imposing natural phenomenon, which, rising almost directly from the Atlantic, is much more powerful than its height suggests. But the more modest Ben Loyal is also a productive destination for climbers and hikers. For robust swimmers and strollers, there is an extensive beach north of the center near Gut Coldbackie . There are also some idyllic lakes in the area around Tongue, of which Loch Hope is particularly suitable for boat fishing, especially for trout.

Tongue has a number of shops, several hotels and bed and breakfasts as well as a youth hostel.

In addition to tourism, fishing and small farms are the main sources of income in the region.

Sons of Tongue

Web links

Commons : Tongue  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. Population (Source: 1991 census). (PDF; 187 kB) (No longer available online.) Sutherlandpartnership.org.uk, archived from the original on December 24, 2015 ; Retrieved June 19, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sutherlandpartnership.org.uk
  2. ^ Information from the Scottish Parliament
  3. Colin McKay: Castle Varrich By Tongue. caithness.org, 2003, accessed June 23, 2013 .
  4. ^ House of Tongue. (No longer available online.) Scotlandsgardens.org, archived from the original on January 6, 2015 ; Retrieved June 23, 2013 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.scotlandsgardens.org