Sutherland

Sutherland (In the area is referred to according to its traditional areas: Dùthaich 'Ic Aoidh (NW), Asainte (Assynt), and Cataibh (East). However, Cataibh will often be heard used as referring to the area as a whole) is a,  and historic administrative  of. It is now within the.

The, and only of the county, is. Other settlements include, , , , , , , and. The population of the county as at the was 13,466.

The administrative county became a area in 1890, and was abolished in 1975, when the Sutherland district was created as one of eight districts of the Highland. The region was created at the same time as the district. The district was abolished in 1996, when the region became a.

The Sutherland name dates from the era of rule over much of the, especially in the north and west, which was perhaps at its zenith in the early 11th century, when  was  of. Suðrland was then land to the south of, or in the south of, Norse. As a Scottish county, however, Sutherland also includes land which is to the west of the county of Caithness.

Sutherland,especially the great North-West corner of the County, traditionally known as Strathnaver, was the home,of the powerful and warlike, and as such was named in Gaelic, Dùthaich 'Ic Aoidh, the Homeland of Mackay. Even today this part of the county is known as Mackay Country, and, unlike other areas of Scotland where the names traditionally associated with the area have become diluted, there is still a preponderance of Mackays in the Dùthaich.

As well as Caithness to the north and east, Sutherland has  coastline in the east, the historic county of  (formerly  and ) to the south, and  coastline in the west and north.

The inland landscape is rugged and very little populated, being 's 5th largest historic county, but with less population than a medium-size lowland Scottish town. It stretches from the in the west, up to the  and across to the. The sea-coasts boast very high cliffs and deep in the east and north, ragged inlets on the west and sandy beaches in the north. As would be expected, much of the population is based in seaward towns, such as and, which until very recently made much of their living from the rich fishing of the waters around the. The remote far north west point of the county, (pronounced 'rath', rather than 'roth'] is the most north westerly point in.

Transport links are poor: the main east coast road is challenging north of, particularly at the notorious , there are few inland roads,  the east coast  north-south single-track railway line and no airports. Much of the former county is poor relative to the rest of the with few job opportunities beyond government funded employment. There are no colleges or university presence in the former county either.

Sutherland is perhaps best known for its saddest memory: The : a long folk-memory of people driven out of their homes in the 18th century by poverty, starvation, desperate clan chiefs, ambitious sheep farmers and rich landowners. Sutherland suffered more than most parts of the Highlands, scattering people with the surname Mackay far and wide across the globe.

County, burgh and parishes, 1890 to 1975
Sutherland became a, with its own elected county council, in 1890, under the. At that time, one town within the county,, was already well established as an autonomous with its own burgh council. councils, covering rural areas of the county were established in 1894.

Dornoch, a, served as the county's administrative centre.

The parish councils were abolished in 1931 under the. The county council and the burgh council were abolished in 1975 under the. The 1973 act also created a new two tier system, with Sutherland as a district within the.

District, 1975 to 1996
In 1975, under the, the county was divided between Caithness and Sutherland local government districts within the , with  and  areas of the county of Sutherland becoming part of the Caithness district (which also included the area of the county of Caithness). Also, the area of the county of  was merged into the new Sutherland district. Shortly after its creation, however the boundary between the districts of Sutherland and Caithness were redrawn to follow that between the counties.

The region was also created in 1975, as one of nine two-tier local government regions of Scotland. Each region consisted of a number of districts and both regions and districts had their own elected. The creation of the Highland region and of Sutherland as a district involved the abolition of the one council in Sutherland,, as well as abolition of the Sutherland.

In 1996 local government in Scotland was again reformed, to create. The Highland region became the Highland unitary council area, and the functions of the district councils were absorbed by the Highland Council.

Management area and area committees, 1996 to 2007
In 1996, Sutherland and the other seven districts of the Highland region were merged in to the unitary Highland, under the. The new Highland Council then adopted the former districts as management areas and created a system of s to represent them.

Until 1999 the Sutherland management and committee areas consisted of seven out of the 72 Highland Council s. Each ward elected one councillor by the system of election.

In 1999, however, ward boundaries were redrawn but management area boundaries were not. As a result area committees were named for and made decisions for areas which they did not exactly represent. The new Sutherland committee area consisted of six out of the 80 new Highland Council wards.

New wards were created for elections this year, 2007, polling on 3 May and, as the wards became effective for representational purposes, the Highland Council's management and committee structures were reorganised. The Sutherland management area and the Sutherland area committees were therefore abolished. The management area is now divided between two of the five new ward management areas of the council's new.

Community councils, 1975 to present (2007)
Although created under local government legislation (the ) s have no powers or responsibilities and are not a tier of. They are however the most local tier of statutory representation.

Under the 1973 act, they were created in terms of community council schemes created by the district councils which were created under the same act. The Sutherland district scheme was adopted in 1975.

Statutory status for community councils was continued under the, and the Sutherland scheme is now the responsibility of the.

Constituency
The Sutherland constituency of the of the  represented the county from 1708 to  1918. At the same time however the county town of was represented as a component of the  constituency.

In 1918 the Sutherland constituency and Dornoch were merged into the then new constituency of. In 1997 Caithness and Sutherland was merged into.

The was created in 1999 and now has boundaries slightly different from those of the House of Commons constituency. In the Sutherland is represented also as part of the.