This gateway to Mackay Country is in terms of the area flat and although holds a typical empty and lonely land is not as magnificent as the other gateways. As the west of the northern Highlands is approached from the east the scenery of Highlands becomes dramatic and the distant mountains become fully dominant. At the Sutherland Caithness border the introduction is distant and this is where the journey into the mysterious and land of legend begins, or ends should this be the exit form a journey that has inspired and motivated many.

Reaching the A836 to the east is the county boundary and the gateway used to identify Mackay Country of the east today. In the past the border has been recognised at Drumhollistan and at the “Split Stane” a cleft in the rock. One version of a local legend tells how the devil himself traveling along the road in a spiteful mood split the rock with his tail.