Loch Loyal runs roughly north-south, gouged into the bedrock by glaciers that retreated from this corner of Sutherland around 12,000 years ago. It reaches 200 feet deep at its lowest point - serious depth for a loch this narrow. The water flows north through Loch Craggie and then Loch Slaim before emerging into the River Borgie, which threads through moorland to spill into Torrisdale Bay on the north coast. Stand on the shore and you cannot quite see either end at once; the loch curves slightly, hiding its full extent behind low headlands of heather and rock.

Three peaks define the basin. Beinn Stumanadh rises to the east, a shapely ridge of quartzite and schist. Ben Hiel sits to the west, lower but distinct. Cnoc nan Cuilean - the Hill of the Whelps - hunches between them. None are Munros, but each carries the bare, ancient quality of Sutherland's interior: rounded by ice, stripped of forest by centuries of grazing, mottled with bog and scree. In summer the slopes glow with the bronze of last year's grass; in winter the snow lies in horizontal bands where the wind has drifted it against the contour lines.

The 2002 census put a thousand greylag geese on Loch Loyal - a population large enough that visitors are likely to encounter the birds simply by being there. More precious are the black-throated divers, *Gavia arctica*, that nest along the loch's quieter shores. These birds are rare in Britain, fussy about water clarity and undisturbed shorelines, and the Highland lochs are among their few reliable strongholds. A diver's call across still water at dusk is one of the sounds that defines this landscape - a haunting, wavering wail that carries for miles.

The town of Tongue is close by - close in Sutherland terms, which still means twisting single-track roads over moorland. Loch Loyal feeds the catchment that drains toward the Kyle of Tongue, and the loch sits along the main north-bound route, the A836, which links Lairg in the south to the coastal villages. For travelers, the loch announces the arrival of the far north: the road bends past its eastern shore, the mountains close in, and the next thing you see is the Atlantic itself.