The A838 road

Road

A road is a thoroughfare, route, or way on land between two places, which typically has been paved or otherwise improved to allow travel by some conveyance, including a horse, cart, or motor vehicle. Roads consist of one, or sometimes two, roadways each with one or more lanes and also any...

 is in Sutherland

Sutherland

Sutherland is a registration county, lieutenancy area and historic administrative county of Scotland. It is now within the Highland local government area. In Gaelic the area is referred to according to its traditional areas: Dùthaich 'IcAoidh , Asainte , and Cataibh...

, in the Highland

Highland (council area)

Highland is a council area in the Scottish Highlands and is the largest local government area in both Scotland and the United Kingdom as a whole. It shares borders with the council areas of Moray, Aberdeenshire, Perth and Kinross, and Argyll and Bute. Their councils, and those of Angus and...

 area of Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. It runs generally northwest from the A836

A836 road

The A836 road is entirely within the Highland area of Scotland, and 129 miles long.It branches from the A9 near Tain and runs generally north through Bonar Bridge and Lairg, until Tongue. Between Lairg and Tongue the road is single track for 38 miles...

 in the Lairg

Lairg

Lairg is a village in Sutherland, Highland, Scotland. It has a population of about 700and is situated at the south-eastern end of Lairg is a village in [[Sutherland]], [[Highland |Highland]], [[Scotland]]...

 area to Laxford Bridge on the west coast of Scotland, then generally northeast to Durness

Durness

Durness is a huge but remote parish in the northwestern Highlands of Scotland, encompassing all the land between the Moine to the East and the Gualin to the West...

 on the north coast, and then generally east/southeast to Tongue

Tongue, Highland

Tongue is a coastal village in northwest Highland, Scotland, in the western part of the former county of Sutherland. It lies on the east shore above the base of the Kyle of Tongue and north of the mountains Ben Hope and Ben Loyal...

, where it rejoins the A836. The A836 takes a more direct route from Lairg to Tongue.

The A838 is generally single track

Single track road

A single-track road or one-lane road is a road that permits two-way travel but is not wide enough in most places to allow vehicles to pass one another . This kind of road is common in rural areas across the United Kingdom and elsewhere...

, and has a junction with two other classified roads

Great Britain road numbering scheme

The Great Britain road numbering scheme is a numbering scheme used to classify and identify all roads in Great Britain. Each road is given a single letter, which represents the road's category, and a subsequent number, with a length of between 1 and 4 digits. Originally introduced to arrange...

, the A894 at Laxford Bridge, and the B801 at Rhiconich.

Between Lairg and Laxford Bridge the road runs close to five loch

Loch

Loch is the Irish and Scottish Gaelic word for a lake or a sea inlet. It has been anglicised as lough, although this is pronounced the same way as loch. Some lochs could also be called a firth, fjord, estuary, strait or bay...

s: Loch Shin

Loch Shin

Loch Shin is a loch in the Scottish North West Highlands. To the south is the small town of Lairg. The loch is the largest in Sutherland, runs from the north-west to the south-east and is 17 miles long....

, Loch a Ghriama, Loch Merkland, Loch More and Loch Stack. Between Durness and Tongue the road loops south to skirt Loch Eriboll

Loch Eriboll

Loch Eriboll is a long sea loch on the north coast of Scotland, which has been used for centuries as a deep water anchorage as it is safe from the often stormy seas of Cape Wrath and the Pentland Firth...

, and bridges the Kyle of Tongue.